At last we come to the day that may well define Thornbury for years
to come. We have pinned a lot of faith and hope on an Independent
Inspector who sees the Core Strategy and its Sustainability Appraisal
relating to Thornbury, for what it is – deeply flawed and unsound.
A number of STGH members will be attending the hearing, together with NorthWest Thornbury Independnet Councillors Rob Hudson, Vincent Costello and Gareth Davies, and a few
local residents, all of whom have been invited to join the table of
discussions. We’ve spent a few hours this evening ordering our files and
reviewing the questions posed by the Inspector.
I’m not certain that by tea-time tomorrow there will necessarily be
clear indications as to the Inspector’s conclusions. It may certainly
stir things up for next week’s Special Town Council Meeting on Tuesday 17th July at 7pm in the Town Hall,
when Councillors will be discussing Barratt’s latest housing application for
Park Farm.(All members of the public welcomed to attend, and also to
speak.) I shall report back before then as to any inklings from the
hearing tomorrow.
Our sincere hope is that Area Fa or Option 6 (Park Farm) is deleted
from the Core Strategy as an unsustainable option for housing
development. When the majority (Lib Dem) Town Councillors have argued so long and
so strenuously for more housing for Thornbury, the implications that
this may have for developing other parts of Thornbury is hard to
anticipate. A major strand of the EIP hearing relating to all South
Glos, is that the Inspector is looking for more, not fewer houses across
the county.
Despite STGH consistently arguing that Thornbury should
retain its current footprint and meet housing needs from within
brownfield sites, Thornbury may well be presented with some difficult
options tomorrow, that will have ramifications across the whole town.
No comments:
Post a Comment