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!!!