Monthly Archives: September 2015

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

Picture by Joe Wright

Picture by Joe Wright

Today’s Times has a Leader article all about “the housing crisis”. As it happens it is virtually a reprint of a piece is this week’s Economist. We all know the soundbite – we need to build more houses to meet the needs of a growing population.

Both these august journals advocate building more houses on green belt land. Continue reading

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Seeking not to find

archaeological survey on the Gap-0090

Ancient Blewburton Hill behind a JCB on the Green Gap

So Grainger is on The Green Gap digging it up. But thankfully they’re not getting in a spot of practice in advance of dumping 170 dwellings here.

They are digging because SODC told them to dig. In their pre-application submission Grainger attempted to have SODC believe Continue reading

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It’s not inevitable. Unless you want it to be.

NPPFThere’s a developer-lead rhetoric that we are likely to face. “Presumption in favour of development” means this development is inevitable.

It becomes even more troubling when this developer-lead rhetoric is then unthinkingly adopted by Officers and Members who actually have a legal obligation to make objective, rational and logical planning decisions. Continue reading

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We like consultation even if they don’t

open-meeting-poster-smallWe asked Grainger to extend their so called ‘consultation’ to cover Didcot. They refused.

We challenged SODC about their chaotic ‘consultation’ process. Their response was as confusing as their process.

Unlike these two we think consultation is important. Talking about a huge development on our doorstep is a good thing.

So we are holding an Open Meeting on Monday. To tell the people of Didcot and around what we know. And to find out what they think.

Open Meeting. Monday 7th September. 7.30pm. Fleet Meadow Community Hall.

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Compare and Contrast

Didcot North East’s developer is Croudace Homes. Along side the planned development of between 1800 and 2030 houses, they will deliver two new primary schools, one new secondary school, a new £15m leisure centre with “Olympic size pool” and outdoor sports pitches. As well as extensive new road infrastructure. There is also a massive obligation to ‘fix’ the site with regards to flooding and re-routing of utilities. Finally, there is also a massive ‘section 106 / CIL’ agreement which will see significant funds being created to help with all manner of public services. Continue reading

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