Nicola Blackwood MP, Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon, has arranged a public meeting on Saturday 24 November at 10am in Abingdon Guildhall, regarding the proposed development of 160 new houses off the Drayton Road in Abingdon.
Lots of people have been writing to Nicola on the subject, and this is a chance for people to air their views and hear what councillors and council officials have to say on the subject.
We hope that there will be a good turn out for this meeting
Thank you for posting this Alastair
Didn’t I read in the paper (Online paper or OM),
that this idea /planning has been refused?.
Something about the planned slip Road breaching European Guidelines)..and traffic.
Col,
This proposal is very much alive. Even if the Vale kick it out it may go to appeal. We need as much support as we can get at this meeting.
It would be interesting to see the amount of standing water there & around after all this rain.
There is no question that it may go to appeal, it will. Hallam are dab hands at going to appeal. They seem to taget areas for development where the ‘Local Plan’ has expired or is still being developed. This appears to put them in a strong position when it comes to an appeal and a favourable decision by the Planning Inspector. Try Googling ‘Hallam Land Management’ and ‘appeal’..
Col, It came to the Town council planning committee last Monday and we recommended refusal. Th TC can only only make recommendations, It is the Vale that makes the decision – or the planning inspector, if it goes to appeal.
This is a chance for people to see whether Nicola and the Council Cabal have any spine for a fight.
I’m only indirectly effected, but anyone who’s seen the Drayton Road/Ock Street intersection during ‘rush hour’ knows that this development should have been dead in the water by now.
Cllr Jason … yes, it’s thank you to Alastair as the various Councils and the Planning sites have been spectacularly inept in this instance.
Pre-internet this might have got through without those it will most effect knowing and the Council would have slept on and on.
Time for NIcola to show she’s the only man around here.
Good to see so many people at the meeting this morning on a very wet day but it didnt deter anyone..Many expressed thier views which re-iterated the views of others. Those assembled raised issues from Transport infrastructure,flood,Social and health needs and I think there was a comedy moment when it was made aware that the developers were ot offer to residents of the new development..£140 to purchase a bike! I think most of us fell off our seats with laughter..on a more serious note concerns were also raised with respect to the submitted data and statistics to support the application which appeared to those more learned to be amaturish and clumsy. The room expressed also concerns of the councils response to that of a housing plan which it seems had missed a crucial deadline and expired in 2011 and would mean that developers had seen the opportunity of this lack of process and took thier chance. We were assured by those present as representatives that this was the first of perhaps many gathering to express our views cohesively and collectively. We have to ensure that nieghbours and others who were unable to attend are updated with all aspects of the process and proceedures with this application.. Hallam it seems to have a real chance of going to appeal, thus we need to get all ducks in a row.. and if the council reads this please please put a TPO on all the mature trees on the road line.. so that none of these majestic trees are cut down in order to save them as they are part of the landscape of this area of Abingdon.. We are already subject to Slasher and basher horiticultural maintenance who appear to have little or no knowledge of trees and shrubs.. so we need to ensure that we keep these trees…I was disappointed not to see Neil fawcett who had been very vocal about this…a personal note I would like to thank those who came with experience knowledge expertise who added value to our concerns and gave us all more of an insight of the potential impact of this site
I trust that we can beat this application and the council get in place this Housing plan as time is of the essence and we need to ensure we are not caught napping again.
Hi “Resident”,
I’m afraid I was away for the weekend at a work conference, otherwise I would have been there. I did help produce the flyers that went out though and will continue to work with local resdients to fight the plans.
Samantha Bowring, Ock Meadow Town Councillor (and my better half), was there, and has passed on many of the comments to me.
I was delighted to receive an invite to Stonehill House and to meet and hear about Antheas vison of her wonderful home which she is hoping to be a place of peace reflection and where people who need to have space and a sense of purpose for reflection and healing This new development would have the potential impact of being a very real threat and disturbance to this peaceful place. Anthea expressed her vison so very eloqently to the people that attended although small but equally as supportive of her vison. Walks around the her beautiful property was so very peaceful.You can see how dreadful this would be and the impact yet another reason why this development should not go ahead., I felt so very sad that Anthea has her longterm aspiration under potential threat, What a wonderful place and so lucky that Anthea is allowing her property to be used for others to benefit.