So Keith Simpson does exist...

A rare letter from Keith Simpson has arrived which is in response to our letter dated 26^th January where SNUB, rather tongue in cheek, put us forward to be part of the Neighbourhood Planning Vanguard Scheme.  At the time our Blog posting said, among other things, the following:

“As a consequence of this SNUB have approached DCLG direct to request that SNUB are considered as a suitable community group to develop their own Neighbourhood Planning Vanguards scheme thus by passing BDC.  We would of course work closely with local Parish Councils however we see nothing in the guidance that prohibits groups like SNUB participating in their own right.  The insistence on using Parish or Town Councils is the BDC interpretation as, we believe, a way of maintaining control of an area that they are losing control in ie local planning!  There is £20,000 for each group that participates in this scheme and we are of the view that based on previous experiences we would achieve a much better return on this investment then the power hungry bureaucrats at BDC.  We will wait and see what DCLG say.”

Well Keith Simpson’s letter was passing on the response from Greg Clark, the Minister for Decentralisation at DCLG, that states the following:

“I am however pleased that Mr Heard and his community group (SNUB) are attracted by the opportunities presented by the neighbourhood planning and I hope that, when the reforms are in place, they will be willing to exercise the new powers that we are making available.”

So not so far fetched and yes we are willing and able to exercise whatever powers we can to stop the over development of the North East growth triangle.

It seems then that Keith Simpson is doing something and that it appears to take a month for him to answer letters.  We should therefore expect a response soon to the letter we sent on the 3^rd Feb that asked him what he has done about the SNUB petition and why he hasn’t tabled the Parliamentary Questions that SNUB asked him!