The fight goes on

Whilst we are disappointed about the Planning Inspectors decision to approve the JCS it has not come unexpectedly as the supporters of the JCS deployed a huge team of council officers, Barristers and experts to support their case whereas groups like SNUB had to rely on the efforts of a small number of members who did not have access to these type of resources.  These resources used by the JCS supporters were of course paid for by the ratepayers and these costs run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.  Questions need to be asked about the financial viability of this expenditure when all local councils, and in particular Norfolk County Council and Broadland District Council, are planning savage cuts to front line services.

However the fundamentals haven't changed in that the applications by developers will still need to be subjected to planning applications and due process. This process has changed considerably since the start of the JCS as the Big Society and the associated Localism Bill will legislate for the rights of residents to be heard and for them to proactively approve the level of housing development that this JCS calls for.  The local councils who make up the GNDP will not be able to ignore the thousands of locals who have signed petitions to express their disapproval of these plans and they will actively have to seek approval of the local community as part of the process.  The fight goes on and SNUB will be ready to assist local residents in getting their voice heard either through the ballot box or by other lawful means available to us.

We believe that there needs to be a sensible and mature debate around the level of local housing required in Norfolk and we call upon the local media to facilitate such a debate in the way they have done with campaigns around the potential closure of RAF Marham and the plans for the Incinerator at Kings Lynn.

8 comments:

  1. Not so sure that the cuts apply to Broadland District Council.
    The recent budget awarded staff a salary increase by changing pay bands. The Chief Executive is going early with all the associated costs. There will be no redundancies and a 3% increase in Council Tax is already in the pipeline for next year.
    The question is whether we have been paying too much Tax for the services we receive,

    ReplyDelete
  2. A local Rackheath resident says...keep up the great work Snub and all your suppoters including us,the farm ..we know you are right and it's just them that wernt even voted in pushing things on us people as usual.the good always win in the end look at 1939-45,when we were kids.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whilst the euphoria sweeps the Council Halls, we need to remember that this is the view of a Planning Inspector. He will not have to live with the consequences of his decision which is based on a skewed Planning System created by the last government.
    We might have hoped that the early rhetoric of the coalition government signalled a change but 'Wilfred' Pickles is still a Yorkshireman and you know you can't tell them anything.
    Gala Homes, Regional Strategies, New Homes Bonuses, Localism - he already has an unenviable reputation for crass pigheadedness.
    We need to keep out focus and remember how our Councils have behaved.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Has it ever occured to you that they might be more right and you might be very wrong? We need houses and we need jobs. Putting them in places close to the city seems right to me. The Inspectors agreed. Do you think they were stupid, corrupt or incompetent?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am not sure which manifestation of anonymous drafted the last comment but you did not read what I said before launching your attack. I never suggested that the inspectors were stupid, corrupt or incompetent; you did. They have to apply the rules of the Planning System and that is the only basis on which was this was judged.

    Furthermore, if you had taken the trouble to read the Inspectors report you would see that even now they require changes to be made to the JCS. One of which will ensure that the number of houses built will exceed all the present forecasts. If you change the percentage of affordable houses from 40% to 33% then the total requirement will go up by nearly 8000 dwellings.
    Then there is the NDR, which will cost about £M130, the inspectors continued to question the wisdom of the plan based for NE Norwich based on an assumption about funding.
    What about the jobs? Are these jobs needed for all the extra people coming to fill up the Houses? Hpuses built by developers who are obliged to provide the 'Council Houses ' for free. Why not just build the Council houses?
    How goos are councils are creating jobs? Jobs , no doubt like the thousands which they promised would result from the £M80 investment in the port at Great Yarmouth.

    ....and yes it has occurred to me that I might be wrong but having seen the way the Councils have behaved during this process, I am reasonably content to be associated with the opposition to this excessive and costly scheme.
    I am not seeking glory or motivated by greed, just resolute in the view that the extent of this development is unwarranted and will be hugely damaging. It is also a view widely shared outside the confines of Government.

    ReplyDelete
  6. VERY fed up Thorpe End resident28 February 2011 at 12:02

    For those who doubt the reports regarding how our council behaves, I urge you to go to a council meeting and see for yourselves. At the last Broadland meeting, where the budget for the next year was to be voted on, the opposition groups (not the Tory Councillors who make up the vast bulk of the council and most of whom just vote like puppets as instructed) raised objections to only receiving their budget papers 1 hour before the meeting. There were 78 pages of figures to be scrutinised and the opposition asked for the meeting to be adjourned to allow them to check that all figures presented were as agreed and discussed at previous council meetings. Whilst all this discussion was taking place, I watched a council officer, scuttle over to the press looking most concerned. Surprise surprise, there was no mention of this issue in the EDP the next day! Censorship of the diabolical way the council conducts it's business is quite normal. This is not democracy, Broadland have become a dictatorship and you can't even get into meetings of the GNDP as the public are excluded. They are hell bent on making Norwich like Milton Keynes and thanks to the lack of opposition from locals, this is now a step closure to happening. I am not entirely convinced that the planning inspectors would have taken a blind bit of notice of any of the objections raised but the number of people who can actually be bothered to inform themselves as to what is going on and the devastation planned for the area is pitiful. I am sure there will be plenty of moaners though once it is too late, all the building takes place and you cannot get your children into schools and it becomes even more impossible to make an appointment with the doctor. Just speak to those who move here to get away from all that. And God help us when we need to grow more food in this country and we can't because there is concrete everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Its the same up here in Aylsham.......proposals for more housing cloaked in a proposal for football pitches....a Health Centre on new development with no clues as to what happens to the current provision? Bus access to the new 'Health' centre.....I don't see Mr Sander's new large busses getting under the railway bridge!! A Parish council with no teeth and not willing to show the real issues to the voters...Oh and Broadland's expensive beaurocrats....

    ReplyDelete
  8. http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/view/ncc078744

    • Norfolk’s total population change over the 25 years to 2033 would be made up of
    approximately 221,700 gain from net in-migration and around 2,800 loss from
    natural change (more deaths than births)

    http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/view/ncc078744

    ReplyDelete