FURIOUS: Councillor Trevor Beckwith is angry over the threat of 500 new homes on Moreton Hall
Fury at extra homes plan for estate
By Jo Thewlis
Thursday, September 9, 2010
9:00 AM
A FURIOUS councillor has hit out at plans to remove a limit on extra homes for a growing housing estate.
Around 1, 250 future homes have already been earmarked for a new phase of the Moreton Hall development just outside Bury St Edmunds.
A limit of 500 was placed on any further new houses on the estate in St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s development plan until 2031.
But an inspector’s report into the Local Development Framework Core Strategy said he could see no reason a limit should be imposed.
Trevor Beckwith, a borough councillor for Moreton Hall said: “I am absolutely furious about this.
“They are just not listening to us.”
The inspector recommended the plan should now read ‘around 500 homes’, which has sparked fears the estate could be burdened with too many new homes.
Angry residents on the estate have already formed a community association to fight further development on the estate.
“I am fairly sure it is going to be more than 500 houses,” Mr Beckwith said. “The community has come together to form a residents association and this is top of the agenda.”
Despite objections, the Government planning inspector said he could not see any infrastructure limitations on extending the estate.
In its core strategy, the council claims the extra homes would not go ahead until a relief road is built to the A14 on the eastern side of town.
Land will also be earmarked for a secondary school and relocation of Bury Town Football Club in the plans.
Ian Poole, the borough’s planning policy manager, said the inspector had found the strategy was ‘sound’.
“We are satisfied we have got it right,” he said. “We have argued there is no more room for expansion beyond 500 homes on Moreton Hall.
“There will be a mixed reaction but the inspector has looked at all objections made by anyone opposing them.”
The entire plan will now be considered for approval by the cabinet on October 20 before going before full council on December 14.
1 comments
It is the same story all over the Eastern Region. EERA, before it was axed, had the good grace to admit that its entire work was futile, because the UK is committed to a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, and this means not one new house or flat can be built. I would add, it means that the number of existing houses should be reduced, because most of them need to be accessed by car however "green" they are. Besides EERA, the Local Government Act 2000 says social, economic and environmental Well Being must take priority in all Local Authority projects. No more cars then, no more roads, no more nasty expensive-to-buy but cheap-to-build houses crammed up close like battery hens, and no more people. Because for a start, there are no more jobs, are there? In fact there are less jobs all the time, and many jobs still hanging on are not real jobs. On the subject of no more people, encouraging more people to cram themselves in here is against the UN Charter For Nature 1982, which forbids any development which endangers the natural world. We all depend on that world, even if we think - as some Planning Inspectors seem to - that the food on our plates can be created out of nothing like a magician's rabbit. Just as some farmers seem to think they don't need bees and other insects and worms and so on. It is all very silly and is going to end in tears before bedtime, whatever planning inspectors say or don't say (unless they say firmly that not one more house is to be built anywhere, but they aren't going to do that are they?) The houses aren't for the sons and grandsons of local people either - they are for newcomers from the cities and from halfway across the world too. Walk around Queen's Hills on the south edge of Norwich, or any new development. It will be at least 80 per cent newcomers, most of them from abroad. Because no-one local can afford these "affordable" homes, and anyway no-one local is stupid enough to fall for the sales talk about the location and the quality of the buildings.
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edith
Friday, September 10, 2010