SGC and the INSPECTOR

Due to the inadequacies of its own Core Strategy, SGC has come under increasing pressure from the Inspector to increase its allocation of housing development sites across the county. This will be in support of Coalition Government policy which is to build our way out of recession. No matter that people will be unable to afford housing as unemployment rises, the cost of living increases, salaries are frozen or reduced, redundancies are rife, and belts are being tightened everywhere.
The net result for Thornbury is that SGC has proposed that the Morton Way North site be added to its Core Strategy, in addition to 500 houses at Park Farm. This comes as little surprise to STGH who have continually warned that, by approving the least sustainable development site (Park Farm - heritage issues, flooding problems, lack of infrastructure, access to town centre), it renders all other sites across Thornbury vulnerable to development in the relatively near future.
It is still not certain how the Inspector will respond to this proposal by SGC. Certainly the Thornbury SGC Councillors, and a number of Thornbury Town Councillors have got themselves into a bit of a flap over this. Ironic really, when their own short-sighted actions have contributed to this state of affairs. The Inspector intends to re-open the EIP for one day only on Thursday 7th March 2013 to hear further representations on this and a few other matters. STGH will certainly be in attendance, and will report on what is discussed. There is still a final window of opportunity to send a written comment to the Inspector on this matter (FAO Inspector Crysell, c/o Kath Thorne, SGC), but this closes on Friday 8th Feb, 2013.
We have never been in favour of developing houses on our green fields, but we have always argued that the Park Farm site is the least sustainable of all proposed options. This continues to be the case. Flooding issues have come higher on the agenda following the inclement weather of the past 10 months. Access shortcomings have been highlighted with the arrival of the Alexandra Way Care Home development proposals that Barratts have recently added to the table. And the Heritage issues will never go away.
We have little confidence that any of SGC, TTC or the Inspector actually have the whole-hearted interests of Thornbury residents at the top of their agenda. We continue to represent those interests as best we can, and welcome your support.

GarethD 
on behalf of STGH