Councils out of control

This is the quote of the day by Henry Bellingham, talking about the County Council decision to approve the building of an incinerator in West Norfolk - “ I'm flabbergasted... We’re moving into uncharted territory here. People have put their faith in the democratic process and if they’re trampled on and ignored, the consequences will cover the whole of Norfolk.

That sounds familiar. Have the MP's just woken up to the behaviour of the Councils in Norfolk?
65,000 people voted in a district poll to oppose the building of an Incinerator at Saddlebow and the council preferred instead, to listen to the 1,750 people who responded to a Cory Wheelabrator opinion poll. You might wonder how this show of local opinion could be rubbished and today we saw how. Council Officers have attacked the validity of the local West Norfolk poll and the Councillors have used it to override public opinion.
Say goodnight to the Big Society, these people need to be voted out as soon as possible starting with all those twin hatters standing in the District Council Elections in May.

This is the same County Council who have ignored the outcome of all consultations about the Joint Core Strategy and still intend to provide their developer friends with ready made infrastructure at residents expense. Not only that they sought Growth Status without consulting anyone and are now intent on destroying Norwich as well by massive building plans which will see the population of Norwich rise by 100,000 people in 15 years. It is time to say GET OUT - We have had enough of this.

13 comments:

  1. Funny thing this, Councillor Clancy another County Councillor who is also the member for Felthorpe on Broadland District Council says he supports the principle of growing crops for energy as long as it is not in his ward. Why well he is happy to have a similar plan at Rackheath.
    Then they have the gall to call the residents, NIMBY's

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  2. Surprised to find myself saying this, but well said Henry! The council's decision to do what they'd already decided to do anyway, in the face of obviously massive opposition, makes a mockery of democracy.

    If this is the way councils are going to behave, it forces the people into a corner, our of which the only way is to fight. Direct action is called for, Newbury Bypass style.

    We can't just stand by and let this happen.

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  3. VERY fed up Thorpe End resident8 March 2011 at 18:11

    Well this just illustrates what we have all known for some time. Consultations are just box ticking exercises and are ignored by their instigators. What a farce! And at the tax payers expense. We have got to get seats on the councils and parish councils. This will be the only way to stop them riding roughshod over our views and they are certainly ignored in the consultations.

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  4. For weeks now there have been many comments and posts on this blog expressing the hope that the May 5th elections will see changes in who represents us. In today's Evening News, CPRE's spokesperson said he hoped people would use their votes on May 5th to register their opposition to the massive house-building programme that the GNDP JCS entails.

    I agree - BUT will we have any alternative to vote for? It seems dead obvious that there is a crying need for an alternative. A desperate unfulfilled need is remaining overlooked, a need for there to be candidates and political parties to vote for that stand firmly against the whole mega-development concept. But the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib-dems are all in agreement with it. The Greens don't seem to be anywhere, not outside of Norwich anyway.

    In my humble opinion the Greens are letting us down by not offering the people the alternative they need. They are simply not bothering to make a big issue of this and are seemingly putting hardly any effort into campaigning in areas such as the growth triangle. They would pick up thousands of votes if they'd only get their heads out of the sand and see the bigger picture.

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  5. I quite fancy chaining myself to a digger. Seriously though, it really is coming to that.....

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  6. Hello. I am very interested in this issue but want to understand the facts. Can you point me to where it says the population of Norwich will increase by 100,000 in 15 years? I have looked on the GNDP website and that doesnt seem to be what is planned at all.

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  7. What is the point of our Councillors and MP's ?
    They do not represent us in any way and they are only interested in their selfish aims of position and pay. They only care when it's election time and come pleading with the public to support them and once elected they go away and do just what their party wants and dictate to us. Let's all do the right thing next time a kick them all out and vote for someone who has proven to listen to the electorate.

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  8. Hello anonymous welcome to the SNUB blog. I am glad you are interested in these figures. I don't know why I have the feeling but I guess you don't really want to understand the facts only to place a Council slant upon them. This thread is about the behaviour of Local Councils and the figures support the contention that their behaviour is unacceptable.

    I am sure we should all be concerned. I think you might want to ask CPRE about the data. The figures are taken from a report in the local newspapers earlier this week.

    If you would like to read the previous threads on this site you would be able to keep up with the breaking news. The Joint Core Strategy requires the building of 37,000 houses in the GNDP Planning Area. The Councils claim is that this number of houses is necessary in order to meet their plans for affordable housing.

    If you have missed the final report by the Planning Inspectors which noted that their plan to build 40% of this housing as affordable dwellings, is not actually viable. They believe 33% is more likely, even though the figures produced and the views of developers would put that at the top of the range. Since the final outcome will be a percentage negotiated between the Council and the developers we are safe to presume that this will end up being lower.

    Just do a sum
    If the number of affordable houses required only 33% of the number, instead of 40% you need to build more houses or change the number of affordable houses. This new housing requirement is 44,400. That is an increase of 8,000 dwellings over the figures they admit.
    Take an average number of residents per household in 2.25 then it represents 99,000 people

    What the GNDP have been telling the public over the past eighteen months has been shown to be without foundation. They have continued to maintain an unhealthy secrecy over their activities. It was only the focus of the EiP which brought some of this to light.

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  9. Both Broadland DC and the County Council are totally out of control and run by the Officers for the benefit of the Developers. Yet we PAY THEM.... They should remember that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS and NOT Dictators. They will never have my vote again.

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  10. Councils play with our hard earnt money just like it's a game of Monopoly. It beggars belief that they could go to the USA on a freebie mainly paid for by us, then enter into a contract with a massive penalty clause should it not go ahead.
    Not only that, they did this without consulting the locals first.
    It is these people and the rest of the people living in Norfolk whose health will be affected by the fallout of dangerous emissions.
    However they still went ahead despite overwhelming opposition thinking they know best.
    Many who voted this through are "Twin Hatters" who are on other councils and pushing for the NDR, the Rackheath Ecotown and the Joint core Strategy.
    The JCS will open the floodgates to developers to flood this region with 40,000 houses, 100,000 migrants and as many extra cars and it will ruin Norfolk.
    The sooner we kick these arrogant idiots from power the better for all of us.

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  11. Dis-enchanted of Broadland10 March 2011 at 10:00

    So the County Council are going to use PFI for the Incinerator and for the NNDR. We will then be in hock to the money men just as we are over the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
    The Nasty Party is back with a vengeance and they now have co-conspirators. It is some price to pay to save the economy.

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  12. 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

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  13. ANGRY VOTER seems to think we vote for Officers on Councils - we vote for Councillors.However, it is true that Officers tend to adhere to and plan on Govt policy and so it does not really matter who you vote for. In the end Govt policy will nearly always prevail under the current Constitution.

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