A week has now passed since Broadland District Council (BDC) and the other members of the Greater Norwich Development Partnership (GNDP) voted to accept the Joint Core Strategy that will change the face of Norwich forever. We now enter a period of 6 weeks whereby any formal legal challenge can be mounted and SNUB, along with others, are considering these options particularly in light of the High Court decision that the campaigners in Newmarket achieved where plans for large scale development near the world famous race course was found to be “unsound”. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-12860942
We believe that BDC and GNDP did not follow the correct procedure for consultation as required by the Aarhus convention, which is European legislation, and details can be found at http://www.unece.org/env/pp/.
The vote itself at BDC was unremarkable and as expected as the majority of Councillors took their party line and voted as instructed although the opposition were allowed a free vote. The local Conservative councillor for the Wroxham ward wasted his vote by abstaining demonstrating a lack of conviction that the majority of his electorate were looking for. On the other hand the other councillor (who was at his election endorsed by SNUB) spoke against the JCS and voted in the same manner. I am sure that this pattern of voting will be remembered in May when all BDC councillors will have to justify their actions to the electorate. We look forward to the debate on the hustings. If the electorate want to see what is going on then have a look at http://www.broadland.gov.uk/environment/3220.asp which provides the latest news as at July 2010! Are they hoping that by not placing anything on their own website for 7 months people will think it has gone away.
By the way the BDC councillors were paranoid about the vote as was demonstrated in two ways. Firstly when a group of SNUB supporters, totalling no more than 30, turned up outside Thorpe Lodge they were greeted with FOUR Police officers! What a waste of time and they soon left when they also agreed that it was. We will be formally writing to the Chief Constable to make a complaint against BDC for wasting police time. Their second bout of paranoia was when the Leader of BDC recommended that the Council vote against a request from SNUB to video the meeting despite recommendations from the current Minister who recommends that filming should be allowed to aid transparency! We have written to the Minister and told him that this Conservative council seems quite happy to disregard advice from their own Government. What on earth were they worried about? Perhaps they thought there was going to be a riot and that the Police were needed to protect them and they didn’t want any of it filmed. Ridiculous behaviour.
What a brilliant article, and thank you for the link to the news about the High Court ruling squashing Forest Heath's JCS for Newmarket.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, Daily Mail readers had been kept informed on Lord Derby's plans (part of the JCS) by the socialite Richard Kay, the Mail gossip column writer. He appears to be against Lord Derby's plans for some reason - maybe he lives in Newmarket! Politics makes strange bedfellows - we saw that in the Save Our Forests protest - the whole political spectrum was there. The fact is, there are only two sides that matter in the end - Right and Wrong. And anyone on the side of Development and Growth in a country as overdeveloped as Britain, is Wrong Wrong Wrong.
why don't the people of Rackjheath and surrounding villages and the local parish Councils form a residents community forum that would tell Broadland exactly what they could do with their un-eco town along with the so-called exemplar to the eco-town????? this would be real community engagement or is this too much to expect?....Green Lane west...ps, wonder how much THAT Green Lane west so-called showhousing has cost ( they found quite a few problems to overcome.. no doubt that will be all'extras'.
ReplyDeleteFrankly the problem here is one of apathy of those who will be most affected by the development. The overwhelming majority do not want this development, but do not believe it will happen. Presumably their belief will only change once they are unable to get out of the ends of their streets because of intolerable levels of traffic. Because this has not yet happened you will find that when we go to the ballot boxes in the near future, votes will be cast in much the same way as previously and the same bunch of worthless representatives will be returned to inflict further havoc.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain why we had the large Police presence at the last BDC Council meeting. Who arranged for this terrible waste of Police time and what was the object. Surely as Residents we are allowed to attend the meetings, or was this the first step to meeting in secret behind closed doors.
ReplyDeleteAlmost 3 years ago, when news of the Ecotown was first leaked to the public, I telephoned Mr Mick Snowling because he was chairman of the Planniung Committee at Broadland and I thought he might be willing to help us concerned residents of Rackheath and Salhouse.
ReplyDeleteI commenced the conversation by asking him what he thought of building thousands of houses in Rackheath. His reply was "I wouldn't think much of it if it was in my back garden".
Since that time he and his Conservative colleagues in Broadland have been doing all in their power to drive that unsustainable development, through despite all the public opposition. We keep on hearing those same councillors pretending to be concerned about providing homes for the homeless, yet I know of at least one of those Tory councillors who has a second/holiday home in Norfolk and I guess he is not alone. Surely owning a second home deny the homeless a place to live and only proves that some of those in favour of building houses on farmland are nothing but hypocrits.
Now eer's a funny thing missis!... did you hear about Mr. Fisher, the portfolio holder for conservation and the environment...that when asked about the possibilities of the Norther Distributor Road circumnavigating Norwich.....he said ( quote) " we WOULD have had this road but some environmentalists found some 'pissing newts'...'ees very 'eco-friendly' to be a portfolio holder innee?...the cheekie chappie.
ReplyDeleteYou have been told Norfolk will get 224,000 more people. The 37,000 "homes" is the beginning. This started under a Labour Government, Conservative / Liberal Government does nothing to stop it
ReplyDeleteThe Green Party demand a cycle lane painted on the concrete that will soon cover Norfolk.