On Tuesday evening in the full Wymondham Town Council meeting, she made the point in a question (see below) under the Standing-Order-8-Rule that we need some answers from South Norfolk on several local issues that have been discussed a lot on this website.
Question to Town Council under Standing Order 8 July 3rd 2012
There are three issues specific to the residents of Spooner Row and Suton areas of our Parish which I understand do not come under the Wymondham Area Action Plan. With ref to the Joint Core strategy they are:-
1. Identifying Spooner Row as a service village and the allocation of 15 – 20 houses on two sites one on School Lane and the other on Chapel Road.
2. The possible allocation of some of the “floating 1800” houses to Spooner Row - with special reference to the presentation to Town Council by Harveys in June of two sites one in Bunwell Road and the other in Chapel Road.
3 The provision of 38 permanent pitches for Gypsy and Travellers in South Norfolk District Council’s area between 2012 and 2026 with special reference to the Chepore Lane site.
Cllr Turner and myself ask that the Town Council request that South Norfolk Council calls a public meeting in Spooner Row village hall in order to clarify these three development proposals for Spooner Row and Suton areas.
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So well asked, Diana; and stand by the Village Hall bookings secretary, we're all looking forward to that meeting.
Yes, thank you Cllr Hockaday for requesting a South Norfolk Council Public Meeting. All we ask is for the council to be open with us and keep us informed of all the changes. They also need to take our concerns into consideration.
I see that the developers are carrying on regardless of the recent council decision on our housing allocation. A flyer came through my door on the refused housing estate up on the bunwell road and they are mounting a PR stunt in the village hall this week. Presumably so they can say that they have engaged with the locals when they appeal. The head of south norfolk said in the papers that the wymondham housing allocation would serve to protect the rural character of the surrounding villages against this sort of out of character, gratuitous development.
Usual Developers tricks (they must think we are all simple).
1. pretending they are in a unique position to explore a bus service or make more trains stop (as if we all can't do that). Their 20 Houses wont make any business case stronger for either.
2. Possibly bestowing allotments and childrens playing areas (they think we are in an inner city surrounded by concrete). If they care about the issue, as owners of farm land, as people say the alstons are, they could do it anyway if they cared about the issue. I imagine that they only do if there is money to be made in return which, if this gets swept through there certainly will. The village will be no better off and some will be very badly off.
3.Possibly giving money to the school..well lots of locals have done that spontaneously over the years because they wanted to give something to the community.not because they were after something more valuable in return. If they build an extra 20+ homes, the school will need the money as a consequence anyway.
Don't dignify this attempt to pacify and bribe the village by attending the meeting in the village hall. Wait for the official council one and ask them why this is still going ahead. We have had all the time and money spent on the LDF which we engaged in in good faith. It rejected the proposals, set our housing allocation and redrew the development boundary to clearly exclude it. Clearly no doesn't mean no to some.
OK — here's the latest on the getting a meeting question. A reply from Mr Horspole has been received via WTC's Town Clerk Trevor Gurney. I'll quote it verbatim below. For the time being, I add no further comment because I tried to phone Mr Horspole today and was told by one of his colleagues that he was unavailable until tomorrow morning.
So, until he gets a chance to explain for himself, we don't want to go jumping to any hasty conclusions about how important it is to the wielders of mighty power from Long Stratton to give the peasants of Spooner Row any sort of clue as to what's going on, do we? Of course not, we're all reasonable understanding folk. Here it is then:-
13 July 2012
Dear Trevor Spooner Row, Wymondham Thank you for your letter of 6 July, in which you passed on a request from two Wymondham Town Councillors for South Norfolk Council to hold a public meeting in Spooner Row and Suton. The intended purpose was to clarify issues relating to the status of Spooner Row in our Local Plan and regarding the provision of Gypsy and Travellers sites, with specific reference to a planning application at Chepore Lane, Suton. I understand the applicant for the proposed Gypsy site at Suton is holding an "Open Day" event on Saturday 14 July 2012. I think this will be an excellent opportunity for residents of Spooner Row and Suton to get information on what the applicant is proposing. As you may know, the application has been made by a private individual. Given this opportunity I do not consider there is a need for South Norfolk Council to hold a further event.
With regard to the Local Plan, South Norfolk Council will be holding a consultation event at Wymondham (Central Hall 3pm to 7pm) on the 11 October, as part of the district wide consultation on the preferred options for the Local Plan. This will be an opportunity for all residents to come and find out more on the sites that have been selected as preferred options. Should Wymondham Town Council wish to undertake additional consultation with its residents I would be happy to help out by lending you our exhibition and consultation materials. Please let me know if you wish to do this. Given these two events I do not think it is necessary for South Norfolk Council to arrange additional public meetings. Yours sincerely ................
So there we are. Keep watching this space for further developments.
We really do need to have a public meeting. Mr Horspole needs to realise that a private meeting organised by the gypsies at Chepore Lane is not a substitute for a public meeting provided by the Council.
We need to know why we were removed from the Wymondham Area Action Plan without consultation and where exactly do we stand with the lastest developments including the floating 1800 houses. We can no longer ask these questions as part of the Wymondham Area Action Plan so when can we ask questions?
We do our part and pay our council taxes which pays their wages, so what about them doing their part and arrange a public meeting which our parish councillors rightly asked for. The District council needs to engage with the community on important issues and show accountability.
When I got through to Tim Horspole on the phone, I told him that Spooner Row people whould be very disappointed not to have the public meeting. He said "If every village wanted to have a public meeting to explain the local plans and policies there wouldn't be enough days in the year to hold them all." So I said "Quite right. I'm happy to accept the logic of that if in return you'll accept that we need special consideration because Spooner Row is in in a unique position being within Wymondham for administration and Councillor representation, but outside Wymondham Area Action Plan."
He was obviously unprepared for quite such a rapier-like riposte, so he repeated his general invitation to the consultations in Central Hall. I replied that while welcoming those events for what good things they were, these were too general for what we want and our immediate local concerns want to be answered, not diluted by inclusion in an event covering the whole district. I assured him that in any meeting, we would only ask for clarifications of policy and specific planning applications from private individuals currently in discussion would be stritly off the agenda (a reference to the Chepore Lane site).
Our Mr Horspole was not moved. Adding that South Norfolk were unable to comment on anything in Breckland (reference to their Gipsy & Traveller Site discussions on boundary areas) the best he could offer was a loan of SNDC's public information materials if we want to book our own hall and do it ourselves. He could not guarantee that any SNDC Officer would attend such a meeting if invited.
I shall be in contact with him again (copying our District Councillors), by email.
Will Mr Horspole at least tell our elected representative why it appears that a developer can so confidently press on with an extra 20 houses up there on bunwell road than either south norfolks own final site specific allocations , the local development framework conclusions or the norwich policy area site specific recommendations appear to support. Especially on prime agricultural land outside our recently reaffirmed village development boundary. Especially with all the houses now allocated into wymondham. Something tells me the developer has more information or influence than the rest of us here. If there is another hidden process being allowed to run, we should at the very least told both how and why, on what remit and for whose benefit.
Agree with the last post. Below copied and pasted from a downloaded file put in the public domain after the councils meeting 11/06/2012 that clearly lays out the locations of floating 1800 houses in Norwich Policy Area within the JCS. All the numbers below exactly match the number reflected in every single one of the service village site specific allocations in the final NPA documentation.You will see 15 for spooner row, which is what we have been allocated. We have been told (rather late) that Spooner row is now part of the NPA. They have reported their findings and it should be respected. Remember, we were previously told in writing that the remit was to find a total of 15-20 houses in spooner row when it was in the LDF consultation and we were all invited to comment. So I agree with others, under what legal mechanism and on whose authority would any more houses let alone 20 or so more now be allocated by the NPA or indeed the LDF ?
The 15-20 proposed houses is Spooner Row's allocation as a Norwich Service Village within the Norwich Policy Area. As a Norwich Service Village, Spooner Row is likely to be open to further developments.
Residents could ask, why does Spooner Row have the status of a Norwich' Service Village? It may have facilities such as a pub, primary school and village hall but so have many other villages. Villages similar to Spooner Row have not had the title of a Norwich Service Village and therefore no development status. Spooner Row once had the status of an 'Other Village' (or was it a 'Rural Village' then?), but then it became a Norwich Service Village. No one was aware of this change for if it had been communicated to the community properly, then someone, somewhere would have been aware of it. Spooner Row's facilities have not improved and there has been no change to the village, so why has it been promoted from an Other Village to a Norwich Service Village?
Another question that could be asked is Spooner Row's proximity to Norwich? It is on the far boundary of the LDF and about 15 miles from Norwich. Has this been taken into consideration? There are other villages similar to Spooner Row, which are located closer to Norwich that have not had Norwich Service Village status. Being located so far from Norwich with no adequate public transport will mean new residents will need to use their cars to travel the 15 miles or so to Norwich. Most of the work is in Norwich. This is not the Green Policy which the LDF is promoting for they want people to live close to their place of work.
There are some strange things being proposed for Spooner Row with little or no information made to the community before decisions are made. There are many questions that require proper and honest answers.
