FINAL NEWS UPDATE FOR BALDWINS GATE ACTION GROUP (1)

The summary of events is that, despite major campaigning by local residents, who are NOT NIMBYs but people who know what is and is not appropriate development in the village, the development was finally approved on appeal. The decision of one man, the Inspector, changed the village for ever and also changed lives of many residents to their detriment.

The farmer who sold the land became richer, Richborough who facilitated the sale became richer, the local residents near the development became considerably poorer as the value of their "rural homes" diminished.

The legal loophole that allowed this planning application to succeed, the supposed lack of a five-year housing land supply by Newcastle Borough Council, was not closed and yet another developer attempted to build yet another housing estate in the village. A separate Action Group fought that and the application was again refused. An appeal was submitted but withdrawn before it was heard.

Maybe they heard of the difficulties being experienced by Kier Living, the developers of the Gateway estate who had paid such a high price for the privilege.

With approval for just over 100 houses given, the first house was occupied around December 2017 and ten months later, there are less than 10 occupied. Most of the estate has NOT been built because of the difficulty in selling and there is now talk of trying to sell homes on a shared ownership basis.

At the time of the original application and appeal, there were many houses for sale in the village with a wide range of prices. So there was no need for new properties but construction companies simply want to build houses and the easiest place to build is on pure new flat virgin farmland. The fact that it is Grade 1 farmland is irrelevant, despite the fact that with an increasing population there will be even more mouths to feed and the country is presently unable to feed itself without imports.

THE DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN A DISASTER FOR THIS VILLAGE AND FOR MANY OF ITS RESIDENTS.

DEMOCRACY IS DEAD.

Vote Conservative? Never again!

Conservatives

Building a Britain where EVERYONE WHO 

WORKS HARD can own a HOME OF THEIR OWN!

... and when you've worked hard, and bought

a home of your own, in a place you would like to live

for the rest of your days, in peace and tranquil

surroundings, 

THE CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT

brings in the NPPF so that, if your local council officers

have failed to do their job properly, 

(ie through no fault of your own),

your retirement can be ruined by developers

building unwanted, unneeded houses

right next to you, causing chaos and disruption

to the peace you had worked hard for, and reducing

the equity you have in the property on which

you may have been relying to finance your 

care in later years.

Poor Bill Cash, MP, has worked hard for his

constituents over many years but the party

he represents shows themselves to be

totally inconsiderate of the supporters

who have put them into power and, as a result,

he will lose many of those supporters.

This scenario will be repeated over many

rural constituencies and if conservative 

MPs lose their seats, as a result, it will be

the present Government to blame and not

those MPs themselves.

Local democracy dead?

Local democracy dead?
Local council officers incompetent?
Party funding from developers?

Whatever the reason, we lost the appeal!

Despite there being no NEED for houses in Baldwins Gate, no PLANNED expansion of Baldwins Gate, all RURAL development planned to make three Rural Service Centres more sustainable... despite ALL the local objections... despite the planning objections put forward unanimously by the local Planning Committee... despite hundreds of pages of evidence against the proposals...
THE PLANNING INSPECTOR CONCLUDED THAT NONE OF IT MATTERED.

According to the statistics, Newcastle doesn't have enough housing SO BUILD IT ANYWHERE!

It doesn't matter that it destroys Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land (BMV)
or that everyone needs to use a car to get anywhere
or that there are inadequate facilities for an increase of 50% population
or that the school is full
or that we have only a part-time subsidiary surgery of the doctors at Madeley
or that public transport is totally inadequate.

NONE OF THIS WAS MENTIONED BY THE INSPECTOR.

And by granting this appeal, the inspector has opened the flood gates to applications all over the village. ALL PLANNING LOGIC has gone and Newcastle Planners are making totally illogical recommendations by paying lip-service to "Sustainability"...

• How can it be "unsustainable" to build 5 houses at Slaters when 113 extra families will be travelling from Baldwins Gate to everywhere by car from Gateway Estate?
• How can it be "unsustainable" to build 3 houses at Manor Road when 113 extra families will be travelling from Baldwins Gate to everywhere by car from Gateway Estate?
• How can it be "unsustainable" to build 1 house at Hill Chorlton when 113 extra families will be travelling from Baldwins Gate to everywhere by car from Gateway Estate?

It IS UNsustainable to be building those but so was the building of an extra 113 houses on Gateway Estate. Once we have an extra couple of hundred cars what difference would a dozen more make? Or another couple of hundred when the next estate is built behind the school... WHERE DOES IT END?

After the announcement of the Appeal Decision it was suggested that the Action Group get a barrister's opinion as to whether the appeal could be challenged with a judicial review. That opinion would have cost the group £2500. 

However, if the result had been positive, there is no way that in a short time we could have raised even pledges to cover the potential £50K costs if we were to lose so all we could do was write to the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, asking for him to review the decision which has so many flaws in its logic and which does untold damage to the whole borough by the precedent it sets.

NO RESPONSE SO FAR! 

WE ARE IN THIS SITUATION BECAUSE NEWCASTLE CANNOT IDENTIFY SUFFICIENT LAND TO MEET ITS HOUSE-BUILDING NEEDS FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT FIVE YEARS which means that developers can apply to build anywhere and the NPPF sats that their application must be viewed "WITH A PRESUMPTION IN FAVOUR OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT".

WHY?

• Is it because the officers of the council have not updated their housing target figure for several years despite the original targets being TOO HIGH?
• Is it because an officer of he council told our Parish Council that we need not bother with a Neighbourhood Plan because "there will be no major building in Baldwins Gate"?
• Is it because nobody explained to the Planning Committee councillors the danger in which they placed the council if they removed certain sites from the Housing Land Supply list?
  
  OR
• Is it because the OFFICERS of the council have a different agenda to that of the Planning Committee...? ... an agenda that works AGAINST the wishes of the council tax payers who pay their salary and for whom they are supposed to work?

ONE DAY IT WILL ALL BECOME CLEAR!

If you would like to be kept up to date, make sure you JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST
Sign up here. 

And another accident causes chaos on the A53 in Baldwins Gate

At around 4pm on 30th May 2014, the main A53 road in Baldwins Gate, Newcastle-under-Lyme, was blocked by an accident at the junction of Gateway Avenue.  This is the latest in a string of many accidents on this stretch of road and occurred at the very spot where developers, Richborough Estates, have submitted plans for a pedestrian crossing.

Residents protested vigorously against a planning application which, if it had succeeded, would have seen half the vehicles in the village being forced to access the busy A53 from this single junction. The application was refused by the Newcastle Borough Planning Committee but Richborough Estates have now submitted an appeal which is yet to be heard.

The scene was attended by two ambulance crews and police were forced to divert westbound traffic through a small housing development in order to keep the traffic moving.

   

      

Yet another Accident closes A53 in Baldwins Gate

Wednesday 30th April saw the A53 through Baldwins Gate, Staffordshire, completely blocked yet again by another serious accident with tailbacks stretching over a mile in each direction. This is the latest in a long list of accidents on the A53 in the area, ranging from minor to fatal.

Baldwins Gate Action Group successfully campaigned against a development of 113 houses on prime agricultural land in the village which would only add to the high volume of traffic which is faced daily by the residents.

Councillors on the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Planning Committee visited the site and concluded that everything we had said about this dangerous road was true. With the village's lack of infrastructure and facilities, they agreed that such a development was totally unsustainable and not in the interests of the residents or the Borough. 

UNANIMOUSLY, the councillors rejected the application by Richborough Estates, a company which did not intend to develop land the land but rather sought to obtain planning permission in order to share in the increased value of the land once sold to a developer. Some would class these as simply land speculators trying to cash in on the current confusion in the planning system caused by poorly drafted legislation in the National Planning Policy Framework - NPPF. 

Despite their development being shown as unsuitable and against the interests of the village, they have stated that it is their intention to appeal and this is currently awaited.

IS DEMOCRACY DEAD?

Newcastle-under-Lyme planners have today recommended approval for the expansion of the rural village of Baldwins Gate by one third in the number of houses, but that will mean 50% increase in population. This is despite over 600 objections.

The houses, up to 113, would be built in a village where there is NO WORK, NO NEED, FEW FACILITIES, and a daytime bus service of 1 per hour (already full at peak times). 

England doesn't have the ability to feed its population NOW, but in the future, with and increased population, THE NEED FOR VALUABLE FARMLAND WILL BE MORE IMPORTANT.
Only 21% of England's agricultural land is classed as Grade 1 or 2 and Government says that it should only be built on as a LAST RESORT…. This is Grade 1 & 2 land.

Is democracy dead?

Is Eric Pickles' vision of LOCALISM DEAD?

Is this the first accident caused by HS2?

Saturday 26th October was never going to be an ordinary day in Whitmore and Baldwins Gate. It was the day that HS2 were coming to the village hall to explain why we should support their £42,600,000,000,000 expenditure on a high-speed line that was no longer going to be that much quicker than the ordinary lines and that would be financially detrimental to most of Staffordshire.

One major impact (in more ways than one) that the event had, seems to be yet another road traffic accident on the A53 in the village ... the fourth in two months! Once again the village and the A53 were clogged. Fortunately it was not for 8 hours on this occasion. Rumour has it, though this is not to be relied upon as evidence, that a car was waiting to turn into the HS2 exhibition, causing a small tail-back, and another motorist failed to stop causing one vehicle to shunt into another and another.....

For the villagers, traffic is a MAJOR issue and now, with the proposed construction of a MINI_ROUNDABOUT, they are all up in arms.

Highway engineers and Traffic Management Designers can say what they like but the facts speak for themselves. The village keeps being the location of accidents, both minor and serious.

Adding 113 extra houses, increasing the village population by 50%, will supposedly do nothing to make matters worse, at least once we have our new roundabout and extra Puffin crossing. There's no doubt that these obstacles will slow traffic but the designers don't see traffic speed as an issue anyway. What they will do is clog up the village at peak times, blocking exits from other side avenues, and seriously limiting the access and egress of properties in the vicinity.

The proposers of this development and associated engineering works are missing the point that the village is NOT stagnating, has NO NEED for this development, has no MARKET for these houses, and HAS NO INFRASTRUCTURE to support such an increase in population. The development is UNSUSTAINABLE!

Simply because the Newcastle Borough Council has failed to demonstrate that it can meet its 5-year housing targets, it is now being preyed upon by parasitic land developers taking advantage of its predicament like vultures pecking at an injured animal.

Preserving Farmland

Baldwins Gate Action Group - Stop development at Baldwins Gate Farm!

Richborough Estates have submitted a planning application in to build on the field in the foreground.

The field is only used as pasture …… according to Richborough. 

Presumably potatoes don't count! Although taken a few years ago, this photograph from Bing Maps shows the potatoes in half the field. The other half, nearest the houses, was "set-aside" which all goes to prove that, as Grade 1 & 2 farmland, a farmer could use this field to grow anything ... or even NOTHING if the Government grants incentivise him.

The field IS currently used to grow fodder and as pasture but in the past it has also grown maize (for cattle but could also grow varieties for human consumption), wheat and potatoes.

Resolution 42/187 of the United Nations General Assembly defined sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

In a country that already is unable to feed itself, it is imperative that, in the interests of sustainability, the best farm land should not be built upon. Once covered in bricks and tarmac, this field will be lost forever to future generations.

Learn more about our campaign to stop this destruction of a finite natural resource.

ERIC PICKLES - HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME FOR HOOK NORTON

Professional politicians are often accused of acting in their own interests in order to ensure they are still in a job at the next election.

Nobody can accuse Eric Pickles of this. He is single-handedly attempting to ensure that there will be NO CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT after the next election. 

The Cotswold village of Hook Norton, just 10 miles from the Prime Minister's own home, has just fought and lost a battle over green-field development against Taylor Wimpey. 

Actually, the villagers WON the planning arguments but Eric Pickles overturned the decision so now they face a sudden 10% increase in village size. Ten percent may not seem many but it represents 70 new houses with 70 new families in a village where the school is full. 

Over 90% of villagers were against the development but Eric Pickles, Champion of Localism, decided that they must all be thick, stupid and not to be considered. They are like ants to be trodden on as insignificant creatures because HE, the GREAT ERIC PICKLES, knows best. 

Why was he able to punish the villagers in such a way? ... Because the local council did NOT have a 5-year housing plan in place. The villagers had NO CONTROL over the local council's progress on the 5-year plan so WHY SHOULD THEY BE PUNISHED?

Rural landscapes, rural villages, and the rural way of life are part of Britain's heritage. Once destroyed it can never be restored. Unlike National Trust properties which are maintained as historic relics, the rural way of life and rural villages are alive and kicking. Nobody is asking for them to be preserved unchanged in perpetuity but they need to be allowed to grow organically. 

Villages evolve. Residents die and vacate houses for younger families. There is no necessity to automatically build houses which change the village character. To do this destroys the very thing which makes people want to live there.

What people find particularly insulting is when politicians, who are elected to SERVE THE PEOPLE decide, like Eric Pickles and Nick Boles, that THEY KNOW BEST. The next election will show who DOES know best!

Should this rural landscape be changed from a food-producing area into

yet another housing development. When top grade farmland is gone, 

where will our food come from?   Population is 67 million & growing!

BALDWINS GATE faces an even bigger onslaught. A development that would increase the village by a third and the population by 50%. 

I have lived in the village for 38 years. We were one of the youngest couples on our avenue when we moved in but gradually, residents have died or moved into care-homes, vacating their houses for younger people. Now I am one of the "older" residents. Rejuvenating a village can not be used as an excuse for destroying it. 

If Pickles & Co can over-ride the wishes of the people and their elected representatives on planning committees, then THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY!!!

Newcastle Councillor Awareness Campaign

Faced with an attack by land-grabbers who tempt the local farmer with 50 pieces of silver (a bit more than that actually) Newcastle Borough Council planning department faces a dilemma.

Every council is required to have in place a Local Plan - a housing plan to show where its housing will be built for the next five years... updated on a rolling basis. Unfortunately, like about 20% of councils, Newcastle's plan is more in their head than on paper. So whilst they know that they WILL be able to meet the area's requirements and they know WHERE in the borough they NEED to build, it is not a plan that the Government accepts.

This leaves them in a dangerous position because Eric Pickles' Department for Communities and Local Government, which promises "localism" with one hand, also gives developers almost a free hand to ride rough-shod over local planning authorities. This is because Nick Boles, Housing Minister, seems intent to drive bulldozers over the very green fields that Eric Pickles says he will protect.

Baldwins Gate Action Group met outside the Civic Offices to make councillors aware of their campaign to STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF BALDWINS GATE by a development which would increase the village population by around 50%.

LOCALISM

What is LOCALISM? 

In December 2010, Eric Pickles ( @EricPickles ), Minister for Communities and Local Government heralded the new Localism Act:

Localism Bill starts a new era of people power

"The Localism Bill will put an end to the hoarding of power within central government and top-down control of communities, allowing local people the freedom to run their lives and neighbourhoods in their own way.

"The Bill, laid before Parliament today, contains a radical package of reforms that will devolve greater power and freedoms to councils and neighbourhoods, establish powerful new rights for communities, revolutionise the planning system, and give communities control over housing decisions."

Well, Eric, 

it's not working in Whitmore and BALDWINS GATE!

Our parish is a lovely place to be born, to grow up, to live and to retire. 

A survey was conducted to which 85% of villagers contributed to develop our Parish Plan. It covered all aspects of life in the village including HOUSING and BUILDING DEVELOPMENTS. This plan was adopted as part of the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's planning strategy and as "an extension to the Newcastle under Lyme Local Plan 2011, it is a material consideration in determining planning applications and appeals".

Here are some of the contents:

Housing and Development

There was a considerable amount of support for minor expansion within existing communities, with strong opposition to any new developments. Any developments should be restricted to minor housing expansion with some support for one-at-a-time infill. There was a strong feeling that the status of the Green Belt should not be changed. Existing traffic problems were one of the main reasons given for not wanting any more housing developments.

There was no support for new major housing developments within the parish

The question was asked as to what type of new build would be acceptable; there was a appreciable support for new houses or bungalows to meet the needs of an ageing population. A number of large houses were occupied by people living on their own. These people wanted to remain in the village, but in smaller properties. This in turn would free up some of the larger family properties.

There was a considerable support for houses with "local residents" restrictions including houses for younger and retired people.

As a LOCAL COMMUNITY, WE have decided WHAT TYPE of housing we want, and WHERE we want it. So, Eric, if you believe so much in Localism, why should we be forced to accept a housing development that will increase the size of our village by over one third, that contains NO provision for local young people and little for the elderly, that damages our environment, that builds on prime farming land?

The only thing that can force this through is the "presumption in favour of approval" with which councils are being forced to view planning applications.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL POLITICAL CAMPAIGN THAT THIS CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT IS RUNNING IS THE ONE BY ERIC PICKLES TO ENSURE THAT THEY ARE NEVER EVER RE-ELECTED.

All over Britain, there are millions of EX-Conservative voters waiting to cast their ballot.

Find out more about our SAVE OUR VILLAGE campaign at : www.Gateway-net.co.uk 

What is the meaning of SUSTAINABLE?

The UK Government is forcing local councils to view planning applications with "a presumption in favour of approval" providing that developments are "sustainable". So what is the meaning of "sustainable"?

In "Through the Looking Glass", Alice asked Humpty Dumpty the meaning of a word and his reply was "It means just what I choose it to mean!" and it seems that to those in Eric Pickles' Department of Community and Local Government "sustainable" comes into the same category.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council faces this problem because it has failed to have in place a local plan which meets the borough's housing targets. Richborough Estates intends to submit an application to build 117 houses on a this greenfield site on Baldwins Gate Farm. Despite all the relevant facts: that this would increase the size of the village by one third, that the school is already full, that there is no prospect of travel to work other than by car, that the sewerage system is already overloaded, that the main road through the village is well known for the number of accidents, and even that the field floods at times, they seem intent on claiming that the development is "sustainable".

Interestingly, the council DID have a plan at one time and, being very "green" in their attitudes, they set out what they see as "sustainable development"...

Sustainable development is at the heart of this Local Plan. It is enshrined in its general aim (see Introduction). Development that improves the quality of life for the residents of the area is to be encouraged so long as it is not to the detriment of the environment in other ways and does not harm the environment for future generations. The highest priority must be given to non-renewable resources: those things which if damaged or destroyed can never be replaced. All development decisions must be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny to ensure that the long term future is not sacrificed to short term expediency. This includes not only what is developed, but where development takes place. The pattern of development affects the way we behave; if we have to travel unnecessarily, we cause pollution and use more non-renewable resources. 

... Development that improves the quality of life for the residents of the area is to be encouraged [this does not improve the life of residents of the area which is why so many object] ... 

so long as it is not to the detriment of the environment in other ways and does not harm the environment for future generations. [It will harm the environment and will adversely affect future generations by destroying a village]... 

The highest priority must be given to non-renewable resources: those things which if damaged or destroyed can never be replaced [green fields are a none-renewable resource: once built on they cannot be returned to nature, something which the council has confirmed elsewhere]... 

All development decisions must be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny to ensure that the long term future is not sacrificed to short term expediency [building on this green field would reduce the need to find brown-field places to build to reach the council's housing target. That, and bowing to government pressure, is sacrificing long-term future to short term expediency]. 

This includes not only what is developed, but where development takes place. The pattern of development affects the way we behave; if we have to travel unnecessarily, we cause pollution and use more non-renewable resources. [The village of Baldwins Gate is 5 miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme, the nearest main place of employment. Public transport would never be able to fulfil the commuting requirements of people living here. Currently there is 1 bus per hour on weekdays and Saturdays so, even if this were increased four-fold which would not be financially viable, for convenience of onward travel, commuters would still travel mainly by car - "causing pollution and using more non-renewable resources"].

View our campaign website  

Say NO to development at Baldwins Gate Farm !

Britain needs thousands of new houses, so we are told. Why don't we build them in the Outer Hebrides? 

The answer is "because that is not where the houses are needed". 


Well, they are NOT NEEDED at Baldwins Gate Farm either (although the farmer who will come into millions may not agree)!


There are a total of around 350 properties in the Baldwins Gate "village envelope" of which around 10% are currently for sale. Many of these have been on the market for at least a year. Richborough Estates are proposing the building of 117 additional properties which increases the village by one third. They also suggest that a green field is the ideal location for this development despite the fact that their properties will not be in keeping with the current village properties and have a density almost double that of the ones which would be adjacent. 

They are taking advantage of a legal "loophole" which says that councils without a current development plan area required to view applications with "a presumption in favour" if developments are "sustainable". 

This development is NOT SUSTAINABLE! 

It requires all new residents to commute to work by car. Even a quadrupling of the buses would not make it convenient as a commuter location if residents were to rely on public transport, so how much "carbon footprint" would the houses have then? With every worker needing to commute a MINIMUM of 10 miles a day how much "green-house gas" will they generate?

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council prides itself on its "green credentials". It has an extremely well-developed recycling regime that is often in the news as an example to other councils. If this development is granted approval, not all the recycling in the borough would be able to compensate for the environmental damage it will do. 

There are many reasons why this development is unsustainable ... ENVIRONMENTALLY is just the first!

Read more at the website of our Action Group.

Major disruption as A53 blocked at Baldwins Gate by accident

Yet another accident in Baldwins Gate brings chaos to the A53

At around 6am a lorry carrying bales of hay collided with lamp posts and shed its load and severely damaging the lorry itself. We understand that the driver was shaken but not badly hurt.

This is the third accident in or near Baldwins Gate in less than a month. In one, a motorcyclist lost his life on Manor Road at the end of July and that road was closed for four hours.


More recently there was a collision near Station Stores which required the attendance of emergency services and traffic was backed up for at least a mile in either direction as single lane operation was temporarily brought in.

Today's incident caused major diversions affecting traffic from Newcastle, the M6, and Market Drayton directions for around 8 hours.

Normality returned around 4pm.

It seems that during the day, another small collision occurred near to the Doctors' surgery involving at least one vehicle. We do not know if anyone was injured but this brings the total accidents to 4 in a month.

The proposals by Richborough Estates for a new housing development of 117 properties on land off Gateway Avenue would probably mean at least 200 additional vehicles and double that number of entrances and exists of just residents at the junction of Gateway Avenue with the A53.

Building houses where there is no work and never likely to be work, in locations where there are poor public transport links, is NOT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

The Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's failure to develop its own housing plan means that they are vulnerable to companies like Richborough attempting to force through planning permission where they can demonstrate "sustainable development" which is why the phrase is important.

The village school is full so would need expansion BEFORE planning permission should be granted. The sewerage system in the village is overloaded so that would need expansion BEFORE planning permission should be granted.

If you wish to fight this development, join the Action Group. Sign up for more information.