Don’t Build New Houses in Our Area
Gordon Brown’s proposal to build three million new homes before the end of the next decade has brought uproar to many villages and country towns.
With the attitude of ‘don’t build them on our doorstep’ schools, church halls and town halls have been inundated by meetings held by the residents’ in protest of new buildings being erected in their neck of the woods.
Once such area is in Dogsthrope in Peterborough where the council’s head of strategic planning, Adrian Chapman chaired a 15 minute presentation on plans to build on the site of the city’s former John Mansfield School.
The new development will end up costing over £2 million and will be split into two groups. One which will consist of approximately 150 houses and flats and the other with facilities to include a performing arts studio, business start-up space and a community café with retained areas of green space being pencilled in.
The proposed development has been met with cautious responses from the residents who believe it could lead to untold pressure on the community facilities and put a huge strain on the surrounding schools; not to mention the extra traffic that will have to be dealt with.
Parents and school governors are only too aware they have already lost one good school since the John Mansfield was closed and demolished and new families moving into the area would mean the Dogsthrope primary school becoming over-subscribed and many local children having to travel further distances to attend schools.
Other concerns raised were the infrastructure of the area and the added strain which would be put on water supply and sewerage.
Teesdale Village Wont Allow Village Boundary to be Extended
In a different part of the country, residents in the Teesdale village in Whorlton were holding their own meeting rejected plans which could increase the population by 25 per cent.
Planning consultant Ted Jackson was speaking on behalf of landowner John Richardson who lives in the area and has previously build 35 homes. He now wants to build between 7 and 11 high-specification houses on two different sites.
Plans for three detached houses are to be constructed opposite one of the village’s restaurants’ and four to eight houses built in an L-shaped terrace in the north of the village. This would mean the village boundary having to be extended for the development to go ahead.
Only 2 out of the 25 residents that attended the meeting voted for the development to go ahead on both sites while nobody gave a show of hands in favour of building on the north side and the village boundary being extended.
After the meeting, Coun Stasny said: "New planning regulations encourage applicants to get the support of the parish council before an application is submitted.
"We felt the whole village should be informed and consulted before we discussed it at the next parish council meeting on Tuesday.
"There was a mixture of views and I really don't know which way it will go."
National Trust Will Buy Land Earmarked for New Buildings
Last year the National Trust who is one of Britain’s largest landowners with 700 miles of coastline and 250,000 hectares of countryside, threatened to buy up Greenfield land marked for the development of new housing.
In a direct attack on the Government they accused ministers of destroying vital green spaces by airport expansion, building new houses and new industrial sites.
Chairman of the National Trust, Sir William Probly said ‘they will use the trust’s annual meeting to give notice the 3.5 million members will not just sit back and allow the desecration of the green belt or other open spaces’.
