Members of the Parish Council have recently been approached by a number of residents who appear to be getting more and more agitated over something that neither they nor us can do anything about.

What has happened is that the developers have sent in machinery to begin certain preparatory ground-works in order for them to “map” the land and provide a site survey for the architects. Without a proper mapping of the land – and lets face it, it is their land with which they can do as they please landscape wise – the architect is unable to provide any accurate designs for consideration.

I have spoken to Mr Crow, the developer’s agent, and he assures me that nothing which might require planning permission will be undertaken until planning permission is gained and that this is simply preparatory work. Arguably the developer is perhaps arrogantly confident that permission will eventually be gained but, given the present national and local planning policy, in all reality it is likely that permission will be gained anyway. That said, I have been told that the promised leaflets will be distributed within a couple of weeks and that the Parish Council will be amongst the first to receive any details.

It appears that some residents have organised some sort of campaign and that there is a leaflet going around the houses asking (I paraphrase) “what are the councillors doing about it”.

The view of the Parish Council (at the time this comment was written) is that:
1) we have received advanced notice that there is an intention to develop the land.
2) we have no idea at this stage what the development will be but we have been given some indication that it will be “courtyard based” and that vehicular access will be onto Wellington Road via a number of points.
3) we have received an assurance that there will be public consultation and that a leaflet drop will take place shortly
4) at some stage we will no doubt be asked to comment on a formal planning application but in the mean time, it would be the intention of the parish council to facilitate some public discussion on the matter between the affected residents and the developers agents (subject of course to the developers agreeing).
5) we, the Parish Council, can not stop the preparatory work taking place, it is a lawful activity.
6) if anyone claims that a footpath is affected, we would need to see some evidence of the footpath number and route.