Following the news of the withdrawal by AGLC of their outline planning application yesterday we have been contacted by a number of local media organisations for comment. We have issued the following press release:
We were pleased to receive the press release below issued by Wokingham Borough Council this afternoon. It confirms that the Arborfield Garrison Landowners Consortium have done the correct thing and withdrawn their current outline planning application. This is something we have been arguing for them to do ever since the extent of the local objections became clear, with the amount of problems with their application it was obvious that it could not be tweaked sufficiently, and that in that case the only way it was going to get approval would be for the consortium to force it through over the objections of the local people. We are glad that they have seen sense and intend to work with local people to produce a development that is more acceptable to the local people surrounding and within the strategic development location.
Update: We have now received a press release from the Arborfield Garrison Landowners Consortium that we have added below.
WBC Press Release – Arborfield planning application to be withdrawn.pdf
Arborfield Application Withdrawal Press Release 31.10.13.pdf
As you may remember, the Garrison Post Office closed suddenly at the end of June, with ESS, the company contracted by the MoD to provide the shop and Post Office blaming a number of recent incidents at the shop. Over the summer we have continued to maintain a dialogue with ESS who maintain that the closure is permanent, and with the Post Office who insist that it is temporary. Whilst we certainly accept the points ESS have been making about staff safety, the level of incredulity from people running other local Post Offices that we have spoken to when we share with them the reasons ESS have given for the closure certainly seem to indicate that these are much more about giving excuses. They all suggest that the kind of low level crime experienced at the shop is common at convenience stores and local Post Offices, but that investment in simple security measures makes a difference, certainly the idea that a local Post Office on a military base, which supposedly has MoD security alongside the normal level of police coverage has to close due to security problems is seen as very strange. The suggestion we keep hearing, especially from people who regularly used the office is that the closure is as much about ESS and the MoD being unwilling to invest in the shop to improve security of their staff and in the Garrison community itself.
Having said that, one point that ESS continues to fail to address is why they have not followed the legally required closure procedure, which requires a six week consultation to be carried out with all stakeholders, not just meetings with the military commanders on the Garrison. Like it or not, the presence of the local shop and Post Office as part of the facilities available to civilian in addition to military personnel has been used in planning applications for many of the housing developments on ex-MoD land over the years, and the MoD has been quite happily selling off homes on their estate with that self same local shop highlighted as a local amenity. Having done that with the Garrison having now got a definite date for closure the MoD are no longer bothered. Whilst the plans for the new development might indicate that shops will be provided as part of the new development, the reality experienced by residents of other new developments such as those on Jennets Park is that promised shops sometimes don’t appear when they are supposed to…
Since we seem to have reached somewhat of a stalemate, we have now raised this up further and have written to Jo Swinton MP, the Minister responsible for Community Affairs, and ultimately responsible for Post Offices to ask her why the statutory six week consultation process has not been followed. We have also issued the following press release:
We are pleased to have received notification that Wokingham Borough Council have responded to criticism from our group and others and have scheduled the next Arborfield Community Forum for Monday November 11th, at 7pm, at the Henry Street Garden Centre.
A full agenda will be released in due course, but the announcement highlights that representatives of the Arborfield Garrison Landowners’ Consortium will be asked to provide an update on the planning application at this forum, so this is an important opportunity to come along and talk to the consortium about what changes they are making to their plans in response to the extensive criticisms of their application.
As far as we are aware, although Wokingham Borough Council have asked the consortium to withdraw the application no decision on whether they are going to do so has been made. As Cllr David Lee suggested at the previous forum the newly appointed Crest Nicholson are looking at significant changes to the design – the kind of changes that should require a new application, however the existing plan was put together during the consultation weekend that many people attended and contributed to back in January, and the older members of the consortium will have invested a good deal of time and money in putting this plan together. Whilst there may be a number of issues with the application, the plan has had a good deal of public consultation.
We would urge the AGLC to come to a decision sooner rather than later, and also if they choose to significantly change the plan this needs to be properly consulted on and not sneaked through under changes to an existing application.
The consultation period for the Arborfield Bypass Relief Road is drawing to a close. If you haven’t already done so, please make your opinions known either by visiting the exhibition in the corner of the Henry Street Garden Centre Coffee Shop, or by registering your opinions online at http://consultations.wokingham.gov.uk/reliefroad_arborfield/reliefroad_arborfield.htm?ConsultationonArborfieldReliefRoad. Council officers will again be at Henry Street on Friday 25th October, 1.30pm to 5.30pm and Saturday 26th October, 09.30am to 1.30pm.
Opinion in Arborfield is very strongly in favour of route B, especially following the revelation that the favoured route A bulldozes straight through the middle of the villages only “Area of Special Character”, protected by Wokingham District Council in 1994 when the council stated that any proposals that would affect the area should be expected to respect the historical context of the area, and that the council would ensure that harmful changes do not occur. Needless to say in the eyes of many in the village cutting a road through the top of the hill and straight down the middle of the protected field didn’t seem like ensuring harmful changes did not occur.
Alongside the active Arborfield Action Group more informal posters have popped up such as this one that can be found alongside one of the public footpaths that would be cut by the proposed road.
Whilst we’re quite sure there wasn’t a deliberate policy on behalf of Wokingham Borough Council to hide the area of special character – the council were quick to update the information when the error was highlighted, it is another example of our local council missing important details. Given that these are the people representing our interests against well resourced housing developers, companies that have already got developments granted over objections from the council it is a concern that key details like this are missed.
Those of you who are registered on the Aborfield and Newlands Parish Council Mailing list, or who attended the crunch Parish Council meeting this last week will know that the Parish Council has now made a decision on which route to support based on the feed back from their recent survey. The council has released an extensive statement detailing the figures behind their choice. As expected given the opinions being expressed by villagers, the council does not favour route A, and instead favours route B.
Following the approach from Curtin & Co and our posting at the weekend we have issued the following press release.
It is well worth picking up a copy of the Wokingham Times this week, with a number of development related stories.
Front page news is details of the Arborfield Relief Road and North Wokingham Distributor Road consultations. As a result of the number of questions received after the meeting announcing their preferred route Wokingham Borough Council has put a lot of effort into the consultation with response cards delivered to homes in the affected areas, exhibitions running in a number of places across the district, and council officers in attendance at various times to answer questions. We must commend the council on their efforts – alongside the coverage in the paper Cllr Keith Baker has been interviewed a number of times on local radio stations publicising the consultations. The main criticisms we have heard so far are that it would have been good if they had used up to date maps that included the Arborfield Cross Roundabout, and the developments at Penrose Park and Poperinghe Way, and also a comment that whoever wrote the survey doesn’t know the difference between “affect” and “effect”, which are really pretty minor compared to complaints about previous consultations. Details of the exhibition, plus copies of the exhibition boards and accompanying documents can be found on the council website at http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/transport/roads/arborfieldreliefroad/ and we would urge everybody to participate and make their views on the route known.
Later on in the paper on page 7 is an article about the free school group that is spinning off from AG-RAG. We will shortly be putting up a page about the free school on the site here, and longer term will probably set up a separate website for the group once a full committee has been formed. In the mean time if you are interested in helping with the free school bid, please contact us through our contact page.
There is a lot of work involved, but hopefully with a good number of people we will be able to get a decent local school for the residents of Arborfield and Finchampstead and remove the need for children to be bussed all across the borough, and over the border into Hampshire for good.
Later on in the paper there is a news item about the current state of play with the planning application. As you will have gathered from the summary of responses we published recently there have been a number of issues with the planning application across a wide variety of areas. The impression of the whole application was that it was assembled in a rush with inconsistencies in some places and gaping holes in others – it didn’t really fit with the promises made at the planning workshops of wanting to build a high quality development. Not surprisingly, as the Wokingham Times revealed, the council has contacted the developers to ask them to withdraw the application, an action we wholeheartedly support, sadly as the statement from Mark Cupit highlights, the MoD and their partners Crest Nicholson and Wates Developments seem to want to try and push on and patch up the application, a major disappointment given their previous promises to deliver a quality development. It is worth remembering that we pay for both Wokingham Borough Council time, and also the MoD through our taxes, so in these times of austerity we would urge the developers to take their time to get this right rather than follow the previous MoD tactic that we saw with the approval of Penrose Park of being refused by the council and rolling out a team of expensive lawyers to force unacceptable plans through anyway.
One final bit of development related material in the paper is on the letters page, with a letter from Arborfield Councillor Gary Cowan, expressing his disappointment with the cancellation of the Community Forum, and also stating his position with regards to the routing of the Arborfield Relief Road. You can of course tell that we have an election coming in Arborfield next year as there is a whole paragraph blaming the previous Labour government for the houses here – whilst that is entirely true, what is forgotten is that following the defeat of the Labour government at the last general election those housing targets were abolished, and Wokingham Borough Council like many others took the opportunity to review the housing numbers. Whilst some councils cut the numbers, the Conservative controlled council chose to retain the previous figures. In the interests of balance at this point I’ll also say that the Liberal Democrats also want to build houses on the Garrison site, and have previously stated that they thought there should be more than 3,500 here.
Whilst we’re sure the development will once again be a major issue in the local election next year, it’s worth remembering that each of the major political parties, except for the Greens have national policies to build more houses in the South-East of England, and these policies are supported by their local parties in Wokingham. They also all favour building on brownfield sites and since the Garrison will be the largest brownfield site in the borough, that means here. Whatever our political affiliations, whatever the political affiliations of the person elected next year, and whatever our feelings on how it will affect our area there will continue to be acute pressure from the national government to build lots and lots of houses in the area. We would therefore hope that the election candidates will focus more on how they will ensure the houses can be accommodated rather than making hollow promises to cut the numbers, or retreading old ground trying to blame someone else for the plan.
Communicating with the Public
One of the consistent factors for us as the affected local residents who live in and around the Garrison as this project slowly moves forward is that we all have to deal with meeting professionals working on the project at public meetings. We’ve had a lot with professional politicians, we have also had meetings with various professionals employed by the council, professionals working for the various members of the landowner consortia including the MoD. We know for many residents this can be a frustrating experience, and that often they feel that such meetings are just a box ticking exercise to meet some criteria for stakeholder consultation, or that those running the meetings are being evasive or misleading, or just don’t want to tell us the truth.
With that in mind it was interesting to come across a blog posted by Jane Northcote, an independent management consultant specialising in business change who lives in the Barbican in London.
As you may or may not know, there is currently a major project going on in London providing a major east/west railway line under the capital – the Crossrail Project. The majority of the line is underground, and currently a number of machines are digging the twin tunnels under the city, and those machines are due to go directly under the tower blocks of the Barbican where Jane lives. Not surprisingly the residents are concerned about what the effects might be, so Crossrail are running a series of meetings for residents to say what is going on. You can read what Jane said about the meeting she attended here.
What she presents is an eight point checklist of how to handle a meeting with stakeholders, with some key points that hopefully more people handling big projects will take on board:
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