New public consultations

We are pleased to see that the Parish Council has at last responded to requests we have been making over the past four years to inform and consult residents about consultations over issues relevant to village life.

There is information about four consultations currently on the Parish Notice Board.  Two are from Nottinghamshire County Council relating to the County Structure Plan, one from the East Midlands Regional Assembly being the Draft Regional Plan which sets out plans for the region until 2026, and one from Gedling Borough Council concerning a planning application for 25 houses off Lambley Lane.

We have studied all these documents, and shall be making comments as appropriate to the purposes of our organisation.  Anyone can comment on these consultations.  Members who prefer to make their comments through the Association are invited to send their comments to the Chair at least a week before the cut-off date for comments.

Good news about flood protection for BJ

There is good news about flood protection for the village.  Many thanks to Cllr James O’Riordan for his work in pursuing this matter and for this information from the Environment Agency.

The Regional Flood Defence Committee has approved funding for work to deal with the flood risk posed by the Crock Dumble in the village.  The EA aims to construct a pumping station during the drier months of 2007.
 

A further bid for £1,000,000 will be made for works to improve or replace embankment works to improve protection from the River Trent next year.

The next Minerals Plan and the Gunthorpe allocation

 

Clarification has been received about the status of the current Minerals Plan and the Gunthorpe allocation in this Plan (which includes the Bulcote Farm site).  Many thanks for the information to Paddy Tipping MP who obtained the information from the Environment Department, Notts County Council.

The current Minerals Local Plan, which was adopted by the County Council in December 2005, will remain in force until at least December 2008 or until it is replaced by new minerals development plan documents.  Part or all of the Minerals Local Plan may be extended beyond December 2008 subject to approval by Government.  Notts CC has decided to extend site specific policies, including the Gunthorpe allocation, until May 2009.

The timetable for the preparation of the new set of documents under the County Council’s Minerals and Waste Development Scheme is:
1.  Statement of Community Involvement – commenced February 2005, estimated adoption January 2007
2.  Minerals Core Strategy – timetabled to commence January 2006 but has not yet started, estimated adoption May 2008
3.  Minerals Development Control Policies – timetabled to commence January 2006 but has not yet started, estimated adoption May 2008
4.  Minerals Site Specific Policies – timetabled to commence November 2007, but likely to be delayed long after this date in view of delays in commencement of the Core Strategy and Development Control documents, estimated adoption November 2009.

What are the implications for the Gunthorpe allocation in the current Minerals Plan?

The preparation of the new Site Specific Policy Document will be the time to reassess any existing allocations that have not been taken up along with all available alternatives that could help meet demand for the next plan period.  If the Gunthorpe allocation has not been taken up, it could be excluded from the new plan if it compared unfavourably against other options and/or it was evident that it was no longer a viable proposition.  This is the only time when existing adopted policies can be changed.

Under the new planning system it is ultimately up to the planning inspector to decide what goes into the plan.  His decisions are now mandatory.

You can see full details of the County Council’s new Minerals and Waste Development Scheme on their website – www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk.  Follow the links for Environment, then Planning.

Government Office for the East Midlands: Secrets and Lies about the Nottinghamshire Minerals Plan

The Government Office for the East Midlands (GOEM) acts locally on behalf of central government. Last November, BJRA, Bulcote Conservation Trust, Gunthorpe Environmental and Flood Alleviation Group, BJ and Bulcote Parish Councils, our local Borough Councillors and our local MPs Paddy Tipping and Vernon Coaker all asked the Secretary of State (via GOEM) to call in the Minerals Plan, or delete policy M6.6, the Gunthorpe Allocation. (See Notts Minerals Plan section on thissite)

The requestwas rejected.

As we were not satisfied that GOEM had treated our request seriously, in July we asked for copies of all correspondence and communications between GOEM and the Secretary of State under a Freedom of Information request. In August we received a reply from the Head of Infrastructure, stating that there had been no communication of any sort between GOEM and the Secretary of State. Having reason to question this response, we wrote again repeating the request and eventually received a reply in September from the Director of Children and Learning, admitting that there had been communication but stating that it had been decided that it was not in the public interest to permit access to it.

We have now written to the Director of GOEM drawing her attention to the discrepancies in these responses, asking what the Director of Children and Learning has got to do with it, and repeating our request for the information originally requested in July.

Parish Council continues to fail in its responsibilities to village

The Parish Council receives information on all sorts of proposals and plans that could affect the village on a regular basis. It is the responsibility of the Parish Council to then inform and consult parishioners and respond appropriately. In 2002 the Parish Council failed to notice that the Nottinghamshire Minerals Plan included a proposal to allocate a large chunk of the Burton Joyce riverside as a minerals extraction site. We have the vigilance of a local resident who went to the trouble of putting up notices alerting villagers to this proposal to thank for the fact that the Plan was brought to the village’s attention. As a result of this inaction by the Parish Council and action by the individual resident, the Residents’ Association came into existence in 2002 and has been concerning itself with issues relating to the riverside area ever since.

With this experience, one would have thought that the Parish Council had learned its lesson and would take notice of future consultation documents but this has not been happening. We were particularly concerned to learn that Minerals and Waste Framework Consultation Documents (effectively, a new Minerals Plan which will eventually supersede the Minerals Plan that has just been adopted) began arriving at the Parish Council in February 2005 but none of these have been drawn to the attention of residents. At the Annual Parish Meeting in May, we raised concerns about this matter and asked that information about public consultations be brought to the attention of residents by notices on the Parish Notice Board near the Co-op, and the Council agreed to do this.

Over the summer, three significant documents affecting the village were open to consultation – one concerning Gedling as a whole, one concerning flood alleviation for our area and one concerning the new minerals and waste framework for the whole County – but none were brought to the attention of residents or local organisations by the Parish Council. We have asked the Parish Council for an explanation for their failure to honour the undertaking given at the Annual Parish Meeting and to ask what responses they gave to these important consultations.

Fortunately, BJRA became aware of these consultations through other sources and has made responses on behalf of its members. Yet again, BJRA has had to take up matters that are really the responsibility of the Parish Council. We shall be appearing at the Examination in Public in respect of the new Minerals and Waste Framework Documents later this month – just as we did at the Public Inquiry in respect of the previous Minerals Plan in 2004. For more information on this issue see July 11 entry on this site

Residents might like to ask why the Parish Council does not inform and consult residents about significant local issues and why it neglects important activities that it has a responsibility to undertake in behalf of the village, leaving the Preservation Society and the Residents’ Association to pick up the pieces.