Acton community engagement.

Some clear messages were sent to Babergh’s members and officers by participants in Monday evening’s community engagement event in Acton.

Even though the village is relatively close to Sudbury's facilities, concerns were expressed about the long term viability of village facilities, transport links etc. It was also felt that Babergh should look to tourism and related activities to bolster economic growth in the area, rather than hope that more manufacturing facilities would open up locally.  Given the distance of Acton and Sudbury from  decent transport infrastucture this seemed to be a more realistic way forward.

Particularly strong feelings were evident with regard to planning.  The view was expressed that the Council doesn’t sufficiently value the local knowledge displayed by the parish council when they are invited to comment on planning applications.  It was felt that suggestions about road layout for example, and other local factors, should be more actively used by Babergh planners when they come to consider the detail of the application and negotiate Section 106 agreements.  A higher level of engagement with the parish it was felt, would avoid some obvious mistakes and also some bad planning decisions.

I know from experience that Acton is not a NIMBY place, and on the whole the parish council makes constructive suggestions when responding to planning consultations.  There is little doubt that these are often ignored without explanation,  and this is obviously a source of frustration.

Interestingly, when the S106 scheme was introduced the accompanying guidelines made it clear that the Government expected that communities would be consulted when it came to seeking funds from developers, particularly in the case of large developments.   These guidelines were never adhered to as far as I can see, and interestingly were gradually watered down in subsequent versions.

I sense that at Babergh, under our new Director of Place Lindsay Barker, there is a move towards working more closely with communities on planning matters, particularly when it comes to larger developments and general ‘place shaping’.  The Steering Group that has been set up to look at aspects of the Chilton Woods Development is a case in point.

The next community engagement event is to be held on Friday evening (tomorrow) from 6 p.m. to 8.30, with another session on Saturday Morning from 9.30 a.m. until noon,  in Little Waldingfield Parish Rooms.  The Babergh consultation will be taking place at the same time as the village takes its first steps towards preparing a Neighbourhood Plan, a process supported by the 2011 Localism Act.  More information on this aspect of the legislation can be found here.