PARK FARM SITE INSPECTION

While still awaiting the planning inspector’s final report South Glos council appear to have pre-empted its contents and have moved the planning process forward with the development control committee conducting a site visit at Park farm on Friday 28^th September.

One must assume that such site ‘inspections’ are an important and essential part of the process councillors undergo when seeking to arrive at decisions of such magnitude, which will have an irreversible effect on many peoples lives, and particularly as some of the committee will be unfamiliar with the site and its many nuances. However examination of the inspection programme for Friday 28th might lead you to think otherwise.

The programme includes a total of six planning applications, two of which relate to Park Farm. One for 500 houses with the second being an application of preventative guesswork hoping to stop all these new homes and the rest of us flooding at the first sign of anything more than a passing shower.

Leaving the council offices Thornbury at 0930 the committee are initially bussed around four locations from Tockington to Little Stoke visiting small sites with applications comprising of a single story extension and 2 semi’s plus 2 flats.

At 11.05 the committee take a coffee break prior to commencing the Park Farm inspection at 11.55 for no more than one hour on site before returning to the council offices in Thornbury by 1300.

The development area proposed at Park Farm equates to 26 hectares, or in old money an awful lot of acres. It is a flood plain, forms part of the ancient deer park relating to Thornbury castle, contains locally and nationally listed monuments, is ecologically extremely valuable containing many important and protected species, is high grade agricultural land, is many hundreds of years in the making – how on earth can they be expected to become familiar with such a large valuable site and gain sufficient feel and knowledge to make a decision of such magnitude in less time than it takes to view a few extensions and flats and literally the same space of time as a coffee break.

It absolutely beggars belief and makes a mockery of anything resembling proper process

Important Park Farm Update

Dear Supporter,

You may already be aware of the forthcoming site meeting for the members of the Planning Committee to look at the proposed development site by Barratts at Park Farm on Friday 28^th September 2012 at 11.55 am.

We could really do with as much public support as we can muster for this event, if anyone is free please come along, bring your friends, relatives, dogs pushchairs, posters, banners etc. etc. 

We still need to demonstrate that there is a lot of public concern about the site, its access and other limitations. Should the development go ahead it needs to be made clear that it needs very careful design/layout outcomes.

This is an opportunity to demonstrate to the councillors that the public do not support this application and the committee will take notice of the numbers of attendees, so please come if you can.

There is conflicting advice from SGC with regard to the meeting point, they have identified 2 areas; the public footpath adjacent to Morton House and the entrance to Park Farm at Butt Lane, we will keep you posted when we find out where it will be.

Watch this space and thank you for your continuing support,

Save Thornbury’s Green Heritage.

DISAPPOINTMENT AN UNDERSTATEMENT

The shock of coming to terms with the INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S preliminary findings on the soundness (or not) of the Core Strategy, has still not left me.
At first I thought I must have mis-read the document.
Or perhaps the Examiner had forgotten to attach the Appendix relating to Thornbury?
Surely all those hundreds of hours of investigation and research, documentation, letter-writing and representing, public meetings, enquiries, and finally the whole day of EIP relating to Thornbury, must have elicited SOME response from the Examiner?
But unless your reading of the publication is different to mine, it would appear that Paul Crysell has made ZERO reference to the scandal that is Park Farm, with its proposal for housing to encompass our national heritage Medieval Fishponds, and concrete over the last traces of the Tudor Deer Park.
No mention of the Sustainability Appraisal that never was an appraisal.
Not even an oblique reference to the new Planning Framework that was supposed to strengthen the protection of Heritage Assets.
No requirement for flooding risks to be carried out sequentially as prescribed by law.
No acknowledgement that building at Park Farm will in no way realise a Castle School unified on a single site, nor revitalise our Town Centre.
No nod to the potential brownfield sites that might adequately meet local needs in the coming years.
No recognition of the hundreds of local representations opposing the CS proposals, nor taking to task of a Council that failed to engage in meaningful consultation because it was already too closely entwined with the housing developers.
No reference to the bias and dishonesty and flawed data that has informed the process at almost every turn.
How we had hoped for more from an INDEPENDENT Inspector!
We are rocked to the core, but cannot give in yet. We will reflect further for the time being.
We would welcome comments and suggestions from sympathisers.
The Inspector has invited responses to his preliminary findings, over the next 6 weeks. We have an opportunity to let him know what we think of his findings. As always, address them to Kath Thorne the programme officer at SGC who will be passing them on to Mr. Crysell.
We will advise further in the next week or two.

Gareth D
on behalf of STGH

LETTER FROM SG PROGRAMME OFFICER

Dear Examination Participant

I am writing to advise you that the Examination Website has now been updated to reflect the Inspector’s Interim Statement incorporating his draft main modifications.  These documents can be accessed via the www.southglos.gov.uk/corestrategyexamination.

The Inspector’s suggested modifications will be subject to a 6 week formal public consultation. The Council is currently now progressing to prepare the necessary supporting sustainability appraisal and make arrangements for the consultation to commence.  Details of this and the timetable for the public consultation will be made available shortly on the website, although it is currently anticipated consultation will start in early October.  Everyone who has made representations on the Core Strategy will also be notified. All comments received, as part of this consultation process, will be passed to the Inspector for his consideration in drafting his final report.

If you have any queries regarding accessing these documents, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

Kath

Kath Thorne

Programme Officer

South Gloucestershire LDF - Core Strategy Examination

DD: 01454 863742

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE INSPECTOR

We don't yet know what they are, only we know that he has made some!
SGC have now officially received the Inspector's preliminary findings. He has concluded that the December 2011 Core Strategy is capable of being made sound provided a number of modifications are made. The findings and suggested modifications in his report are currently being reviewed and considered by the Council. We understand that these will be presented to the Policy and Resources Committee as a supplementary report on Monday 17th Sept at 2pm in Kingswood. The findings are also due to be published on the SGC Examination website in the near future. How near is anybody's guess. As soon as we get wind of them, rest assured we will be publishing!

RADIO BRISTOL for Cllr. HUDSON

On Thursday 30th August, our very own NorthWest Thornbury Councillor Rob Hudson was interviewed on Radio Bristol.  "Breakfast with Steve Le Fevre" carried a particular focus on the state of the Core Strategy  in respect of Thornbury, and invited a number of guests to speak - only Rob accepted the invite. For those who missed the interview, it was repeated later in the day as part of a news round-up.
For those of you, like me still in holiday mode who may have missed both versions, click on the player below to listen to the podcast. Rob makes some interesting and important contributions to the ongoing debate about the future of housing for Thornbury.

  

Also of interest to some may be the e-mailed  response to the interview from veteran Green Spaces campaigner Ron Morton - I have taken the liberty to print his comments here too.

Dear BBC Radio Bristol,

........

I was out about this afternoon and caught the 4.00pm Radio Bristol News on the car radio, specifically the item with the interview with Cllr. Rob Hudson in respect of building in Thornbury at Park Farm. Somebody in authority is trying to pull a fast one over the BBC!

Mr Hudson said it would be wrong to build on this heritage-rich land, the authority figure said no decision has yet been made. This is simply not the case.

Whilst it is true that the Barretts planning application has been submitted but not decided & that the Core Strategy has yet to be approved by Mr Chryssell the Planning Inspector, South Gloucestershire Council is 100% committed to building up to 500 dwellings at Park Farm. Barretts & South Glos. Council have already held the public Master Planning Workshop for the site.

This incident is simply the latest in a long, long line of council lies, manipulations, breaches of planning protocols, failures to declare interests and general skulduggery by Thornbury Town Council, South Gloucestershire Council and Lib Dem Councillors. The Core Strategy Group led by Patrick Conroy within the Planning Department are determined that these heritage rich fields (Grade 2 listed & thus supposedly protected by the national Garden Society) be concreted over, for whatever reason. The reasons they actually give about the nature of Thornbury are spurious and unsupported by evidence. The Sustainability Appraisal for the development was written after the decision to build had been made. There is a great deal more.

The whole thing is a can of worms that the BBC would do well to investigate.

etc. etc.

Ron Morton

Save Our Green Spaces.