Chilton Quarry (2) rejected!

Down to Endeavour House this morning for the Suffolk County Council Development Committee Meeting at which the second application with regard to the quarry at Chilton was to be decided. I am happy to be able to be one of the first with the news that once again the Committee listened to the representatives of the local community and turned down the proposals. The issue will now be decided by means of a Public Inquiry on appeal.
Once again there was a good crowd of members of the public present, which certainly added to the atmosphere and sense of occasion. Colin, myself, Selwyn Prior, and representatives of a number of parish councils, including Peter Clifford for Chilton and John Steele for Great Waldingfield made heartfelt representations to the Committee, giving a series of excellent reasons why the plans should be rejected once again. A representative from the applicants, Brett Aggregates was also present, and a psychological ‘hiss’ seemed to sussurate around the chamber as he rose to make his case.
I think that the decision was a more difficult one for the Committee this time. When the plans were previously rejected the Members were of course obliged to give reasons. The revised plans from Brett purported to address these concerns so there was little scope to consider other matters at this stage. In addition, there was an expensive appeal in prospect against the first refusal which would have been abandoned if this second application was successful. This would have saved the County Council money and although, as the Chairman of the Committee advised, this should not have been a consideration it clearly weighed with at least one Member.
The heart of the matter was really whether Bretts had done enough to satisfy the committee with regard to road safety concerns on the A134 and beyond. The officers of the County Council, who were recommending approval of the scheme, were not helped by the apparent indecision of the Highways Authority, who it appears are unable to make up their mind as to whether a roundabout or a right hand filter is the safer option at the point of access of the site. This flip-flopping rather suggested that Highways were still unhappy about road safety, and the truth of the matter is that neither alternative really provides a solution to the problem that the stretch of road adjacent to the site is highly dangerous.
There was only one woman Councillor on the Committee this morning, and she made the very good point that the lack of infrastructure in the area meant that it is highly likely that more and more applications of this type will be refused on road safety grounds. This is a clear indication to me that without road improvements in the Sudbury area we are reaching the limits of ‘sustainable development’.
Anyway, a triumph for localism at this stage at least. The organisers of the excellent campaign against the quarry are to be congratulated for their diligence and persistence! The Appeal is to be heard in February.

How much can I say?

The last few days have brought to the fore the problems of ‘secrets in government’. In theory of course, in these days of freedom of information, there shouldn’t be too many of these. Official secrets that if made public would threaten national security are another matter of course, and few would argue that it is right to publish these.

However, there are other matters which can prove embarrassing to those in power, such as those contained in the leaks from the Home Office that have caused so much excitement in recent weeks. Even in local government there is some pressure not to draw too much attention to the shortcomings of the council when they become apparent internally. At Babergh this may be more marked than elsewhere; no party has overall control, and thus there is less obvious accountability and less excuse for public political point scoring.

All organisations make mistakes from time to time, and sometimes it is better, I think to ‘fess up to them than to try to defend the indefensible. Where a council isn’t very ‘political’ however, the incentive to frankly debate matters of this type is often absent, and they only come to the fore where there is a public outcry of some sort. The controversy with regard to the recently installed ticket machines in Sudbury car parks is a case in point.

As the writer of a blog I am fairly unusual at Babergh, in fact I think I am the only Member who has one. It is not always easy to know what it is appropriate to say and how far to go in expressing my opinion. Some things are clear; for example it is generally not considered right to report the goings on at our occasional Members’ Seminars. The whole point of these is to allow Members of the Council to express their honest, and possibly as yet unformed, opinions in an informal setting about council related issues. It would clearly be wrong to reveal the content of these conversations. What happens in Committee and Council meetings, which are in any event open to the public (who rarely come), are clearly fair game for the blog however. In between are a whole raft of issues which are less clear cut however, and it is often difficult to know what and how much to reveal!

A message from the police

The message below has been brought to my attention by Peter Clifford, the Chairman of Chilton Parish Council. It is of particular importance to readers in Chilton, but residents elsewhere should take note too!

'Police officers would like to remind residents in the Newton, Chilton, Assington and Leavenheath areas to keep property secure after a spate of thefts and burglaries in villages along the A134.

Between the 6th of September and the 12th November there have been fifteen reported incidents, which include thefts from sheds, greenhouses, gardens and vehicles. Of these fifteen incidents less than half of the items had been left secure.

Please keep vehicles locked and remove valuables even if only leaving them for a short while. Keep tools and sheds secure with a good quality lock and consider the use of a shed alarm.

We rely heavily on information received from the public, not only are we asking people to be more vigilant about their security but we would also like to hear from anyone who notices suspicious activity around vehicles or properties.

Please use the following link to pass any useful information to Suffolk Police.

www.suffolk.police.uk/News+And+Appeals/Report+Information+To+The+Police/Tell+The+Police.htm

DO NOT USE THIS LINK IN AN EMERGENCY OR IN A SITUATION THAT REQUIRES AN IMMEDIATE POLICE RESPONSE WHEN YOU SHOULD RING 999.

Police Direct Team
________________________________________

A christmas tree for the Festival from Newmans Green

Out on my walk with Rendle the Lurcher yesterday I met local farmer, Ken Chamberlain on his way to cut a Christmas Tree from his small grove in Newmans Green, Acton. The tree is for the Christmas Tree Festival that is taking place in St Peter's Church in Sudbury from Wednesday to Saturday of next week.

The Newmans Green Tree, pictured on the ground above, is to have pride of place in the Church, and, unlike the other trees, will be there over the Christmas period. I am told that it will be dressed with over seventy lights!

The Festival this year will raise money for Breast Cancer Research. It was a really lovely event last year and I am looking forward to visiting the church once again to see what clever people have done with all the different trees. I hope to get some inspiration for my own efforts in the tree decoration department, which I have to admit are generally rather uninspired.

Gainsborough's House news

On Thursday evening Nick and I went along to the Gainsborough’s House 50th Anniversary Dinner at the Swan Hotel in Lavenham. The 50th Anniversary Celebrations are likely to continue for about three years since it took that length of time, following the purchase of Gainsborough’s House by the Trust in 1958, for the museum to actually open, so expect to see a steady procession of related events.
Ninety people or so attended the dinner at which the Director of the House, Diane Perkins, gave an overview of what the museum now looks like following its makeover in 2006. She also described some of the community and outreach work that is carried out by Liam, our marvellous Education Officer. The after dinner speaker was Mark Fisher, Member of Parliament for Stoke on Trent and author of a book on Museums which has a chapter on Gainsborough’s House. He was clearly very keen on the Sudbury collection and pointed out that Gainsborough’s House is the only artist’s birthplace museum in the country.
If you haven’t done so, do go down to the House before 15th December to see the temporary exhibition of early 20th century paintings from the collection at Boxted House in North Essex. There are many excellent works on show, including the one pictured above of Nathalie Bevan by Gertler, which I think is simply stunning!
Entry is free on Tuesday afternoons, and a cup of tea or coffee only costs £1. There are some lovely Christmas cards on sale in the shop, where all profits go towards the work of the House.

Garbage in, Garbage out.

I’m afraid that the calendar with regard to waste collection that you have all received with your Babergh Matters this week is incorrect. I am not entirely certain what is wrong with it, since the message, set out below, that Members have received from the relevant officer is not very clear to me, although it may make sense to you!

What is clear however is that we must all look out for ‘bin hangers’ on or around 15^th December which will include a correct calendar.

The officer writes:

‘Please be advised that there are errors in the waste collection calendars that have recently been sent out in Babergh Matters. These include an additional digit in the contact telephone number, which means that a caller gets through to a fax line. Additionally, the recycling / residual collection weeks from first week in January are the wrong way round.

The correct number is 0845 606 6045

Because of the way that Christmas falls this year, we are having to move collection days FORWARD during the beginning of Christmas week. As this is so unusual and despite the fact that we have published details on the website and in Babergh Matters, we had always intended to reinforce the message by putting 'bin hangers' on bins week commencing 15th December advising next collection day. This will give us an opportunity to apologise to all customers and to include the correct calendar and contact number on the reverse side.’

You have been warned!

Over 400 affordable homes

The Belle Vue controversy and the ‘parking issue’ threatens to obscure many of the good things that Babergh has been doing in the recent past.
One has been highlighted in a press release today. Four years ago Babergh set a target to build or give planning permission for 700 affordable homes in the area by 2009, and this number has been well exceeded. This is the result of a great deal of effort by the councillors who work on the Housing Panel, and also by the relevant officers who are highly dedicated to the Council’s aim to provide decent housing for all in the area.
A harsher economic environment has now resulted in a problem however. 386 of these houses have been built, and another 80 or so are under construction, but the rest are ‘in the pipeline’, that is they have planning permission, but work on them has not yet started. Some of these will be developed by Parish Councils in co-operation with Babergh and housing associations, often on so called ‘exception sites’. However, the vast majority depend on the completion of private sector developments. At present the credit crunch means that development on new sites, even where planning permission has already been granted, has ground to a halt.
Furthermore, the prospect of adding more private sector-built homes to the pipeline looks bleak at present. In the case of Chilton Woods, for example, it was indicated by the developers at the last public meeting that planning permission for the first 14 or so houses would be applied for in September. It is now November and there is absolutely no sign of any application being made.
I am sure that this is a pattern that is being repeated all over the country. It seems clear to me that relying on the private sector to deliver public housing is only a policy that works during periods when housing markets are booming and the private sector can absorb what amounts to a hidden tax on its activities. One has to ask whether this is really a sustainable long term policy for the provision of social housing.