8^th March 2010                                                        Back to Minutes Index    Plan A   Plan B

A planning meeting of the Parish Council was held in the Village Hall on Monday 8th March at 8.30pm.

Apologies from Mr Huddleston

Present Mrs Handley, Mr Blatch, Mr Tebbit, Mrs Pritchard, Mrs Connolly, Mrs Hobbs, Mr Tebbit, Mr White, Mr Kilker and, in the Chair, Mr Dalton. Cl. Heazell was also present.

This was a meeting for the consideration of two new proposals by Accent Nene for the layout of Affordable Housing on OSP 148.

Mrs Pritchard declared a personal and prejudicial interest and asked for clarification as to whether there would be an opportunity for members of the public to speak in the meeting: she pointed out that this would be when she could comment on the proposals. This clarification was not forthcoming and the Parish Council immediately began discussing the agenda item. Mrs Pritchard left the meeting.

The Chairman pointed out that the decision to build affordable houses on OSP 148 had been taken following a Public Meeting held on 18th April 2006, and that this meeting was to decide whether the proposed layout in Plan A was preferable to that in Plan B or not.

Mr White proposed that Plan A was to be preferred.
Mr Blatch seconded the proposal.

Mrs Connolly said that the decision on OSP 148 as a site for affordable housing had been taken before she came to the village, and that although she was in favour of affordable housing, she thought that this site was so attractive that it should be preserved and another site sought.  She felt that it was undemocratic not to re-visit the previous decision in a further public debate.

Mr Blatch pointed out that until very recently the site had been an eyesore with derelict cars and a neglected storage site for a garden centre.

Mrs Connolly and Mrs Hobbs asked that the meeting note that although they had both volunteered to join the Eversden Housing Committee at the first full parish council meeting they attended after their election in 2008, they were not invited to attend the meeting on 18th Feb 2010 at which Plan A and Plan B proposals from Accent Nene were discussed. They also stated neither of them had been invited to attend any other meetings of the Eversden Housing Committee. Mr Tebbit commented that he did not know if any such meetings had taken place since the last PC elections.

The Chairman then invited comments from the public.  These were numerous and repetitive and were not concerned with the proposals.  They wished the previous decision to be disregarded. They complained that the statutory notice given of the meeting was too short, and felt that the Parish Council were not taking sufficient notice of the views of residents.

Mr White pointed out that in the recent questionnaire on the Village Plan which had been sent to all households 44% of those households responding in Great Eversden had voted for affordable housing and 15% against (a ratio of about 3:1). A large proportion of those had named OSP 148 as the preferred site.

Mr Tebbit said that residents are free, as part of the planning process, to object to SCDC on their own account if they wish, but there were no other sites in the village available for affordable housing because no landowners were willing to sell their land for this purpose. He also explained that it was originally intended that the two sites which had been agreed (one in Great and one in Little) should be developed simultaneously. However, since one had been rented out by SCDC, Accent Nene had agreed to develop them successively.

Mrs Hobbs questioned why this meeting had been called to specifically discuss this matter. She pointed out that this was not a formal planning application, as normally dealt with at Planning Meetings where a deadline for response to SCDC necessitated a meeting in advance of regular scheduled full Parish Council Meetings.

The Chairman stated that this was not the case, and that Planning Meetings could be used for all matters concerning planning.

Cl. Heazell pointed out that these plans were not in any way final, they were for consultation. A formal planning application had not yet been made but would be forwarded to the Parish Council for debate when and if it was lodged.

After more discussion, the Chairman asked if anyone wished to propose an amendment to the original proposal.

Mrs Hobbs proposed an amendment that the meeting should be adjourned for three weeks.  Mrs Connolly seconded the proposal.
The votes were 2  for,  5 against and 1 abstention
The amendment failed.

The original proposal was put to the vote. There were 6 for and 2 against.
The proposal that Plan A should be preferred was adopted.
Mrs Hobbs asked to have her opposition to the motion to be recorded.

Next Full Meeting  Monday 29th March at 8pm in the Pavilion

Note:  the meeting lasted for more than an hour.  Less than five minutes were devoted to the topic on the agenda.