As your local District Councillor for Cromwell’s Ward I am writing to advise you that on Monday 24 January I attended a meeting at Breckland District Councils offices in Dereham in my capacity as Chairman of WymondhamTown Council Planning Committee. The meeting was also attended by two other town Councillors.
The intention of the meeting was to find out the intention of BrecklandDC in regard to their current consultation on the above action plan which borders Spooner Row and Suton.
We were informed at this meeting that this is only the first stage of the consultation a part of which is looking into a possible Gypsy & Traveller site. Site specifics locations have not been identified.
Breckland DC is also looking at another site to the South of Attleborough. There will be another consultation sometime in September/October this year.
I have asked that any further documentation regarding the Action Plan be sent to WymondhamTown Council so it can respond to the details in an official capacity.
I understand that Breckland Council informed South Norfolk Council and Wymondham Town Council about their plans a while ago now. Why were Spooner Row and Suton residents not informed at that time? Especially, the proposed distributor road DR3 which cuts right across Spooner Row. As usual, people on the outskirts of the Parish have had to find things out for ourselves, by accident. There is a serious lack of communication between the Town and District Councils and the residents who voted in representatives to serve our best interests.
I'm posting this reply as a Town Councillor for this ward -- (just to clarify who we are for anyone reading this who may have lost track of one or two details of the Public Administration) -- Diana Hockaday and I are the Wymondham Town Councillors elected to serve Cromwells [that's the long thin bit of Wymondham that stretches all the way from Spooner Row to Silfield]; Neil Ward is our elected District Councillor for South Norfolk (as well as being on Wymondham Town Council).
Still with me? Still awake?
*{Good I'll carry on} / *{Never mind I'll carry on anyway}
Yes, Richard, I like to think we are keeping our eyes on the ball here. It isn't always easy, but with a lot of hard work behind the scenes we try to get the best deal we can. I have yet to see what I would call a proper plan or engineer's drawing of the proposed distributor road. Until I do I'll reserve final judgement. It could be a great benefit to us by taking all the HGV traffic out of our village. On the other hand it could bring problems.
So for now, I'll just say thanks to Diana for arranging the meeting with Breckland, because without that starting point we would still be waiting for the first move.
Sorry - (well it was late when I got in from work) - I forgot a couple of important points:
[1] to credit Andrew Howell with having been the other WTC Councillor who attended the meeting with Breckland as I wasn't able to make it
[2] to answer Richard's point about lack of information getting to WTC. Yes I agree, there are lots of times when items fail to get communicated. This is indeed one of the difficulties that we (your Cromwell reps Diana Hockaday & myself in particular) are trying to get to the bottom of & sort out. Unfortunately it's not the sort of topic that grabs exciting headlines becuse most of the hard work consists of ferreting through rules about administrative procedures (mostly the ones about rules about administrative procedures); but I can tell you that we are on to it.
John, what upsets me is that it appears that Wymondham Town Council and SNC are not in constant communication about developments on council boundaries. Did Breckland council actually communicate this to WTC and SNC and if so when was this? I only found out about Breckland's plans in late November 2010 from someone in Besthorpe who uses this message board. He got a leaflet through his door from Breckland Council but us in Spooner Row and Suton knew nothing!! In contrast, Morley Parish Council organised a public meeting. This is a fine example of why councils need to merge - it would also save us all a lot of money in these hard times. I'd like to thank you and Di Hockaday for helping with this.
To give an accurate answer to Richard's question: When did Wymondham Town Council hear of the ASHAAP? Di Hockaday actually asked WTC that very question of the Office of Town Clerk & received the answer that the Town Council received on Monday 29th November Attleborough and Snetterton Heath Area Action Plan Issues and Options consultations from Breckland District Council.
Hope this helps. Breckland DC tell us that more (such as details of preferred options) will be published "in the autumn". I'm sure there will be much more discussion on this & related topics well before that.
Thanks John. I went to the drop in day in Attleborough on Saturday 27 November and asked a Breckland Councillor there whether WTC had been consulted. He was vague and got irritated (aggressive) with me, looked flustered, and asked me to speak to one of his colleagues, who said that WTC had been consulted. The fact that you now confirm that WTC were consulted on Monday 29 November (2 days later) shows that something was amiss. Sounds like WTC were quickly consulted after I made a fuss.
