CLARIFICATION of STGH POSITION.

Despite what you may have read in the letter pages of the Gazette, or heard from Lib Dem Town Councillors, we can assure you that Save Thornbury's Green Heritage has NOT changed its position.

STGH has been consistent in maintaining that local housing needs for Thornbury should first be met from within the existing town footprint. If a need is shown for more housing than is possible from brownfield sites, Park Farm is still not a sustainable site. It is known to have flooding and heritage issues and is too far from the town centre. But our opposition to development at Park Farm and our claim that it is one of the least sustainable sites, does not mean we actually support housing development at other sites.

The Planning Inspector asked for 'common ground statements' between any relevant parties who objected to the Core Strategy. STGH did as he asked but have now been misrepresented over common ground reached with two potential developers. We agreed with Welbeck and Bloor that Park Farm was wrong for development, but we did not agree with them (or SGC or TTC) on the level of need suggested for new housing for Thornbury. We stand firmly behind our original assertion that housing needs should at this stage be met from within the current town boundary and we argued this in February at the Special Town Council Meeting in the Cossham Hall. The North West Thornbury Councillors proposed this as an amendment to the decision to build at Park Farm, also suggesting a survey of potential brownfield sites was carried out. Typically, It was voted down by the Lib Dem majority.
 
STGH has been accused of ‘supporting development’ at Morton Way sites because we agreed that “other sites such as Morton Way South and Morton Way NE have less or no flood risk and are sequentially preferable for development.” That agreement should not be construed as any STGH support for development at Morton Way. We have simply agreed with a statement of fact with regard to site comparisons and flood risks.

From the beginning, STGH has sought to protect the whole of Thornbury, though the battle ground to date has been Park Farm. We always agreed with the 2005 Planning Inspector’s view that there was no justification for development in Thornbury. However, we have also always said that, if the case for more development is made, let houses be built after proper community consultation and an accurately evidenced sustainability appraisal that selects the most appropriate site. This has never happened and that is why STGH exists.

If anyone is interested in reading exactly what the Statement of Common Ground says, then you can  

CLICK THIS LINK.