Timing

In my last article I indicated that the Local Plan was due back to the re-convened Examination in Public (EIP) at the end of January.  This never happened.  The Planning Inspector was ill and so the EIP has been delayed until the middle of May.


New Consultation

Currently Stroud Council is consulting the public on the number of houses that they have determined are needed between now and 2031. They have increased the number from 9,500 to 11,200 and reintroduced the ‘strategic site’ of West of Stonehouse (WoS, or ‘Stonehouse-M5 Growth Cluster’) suggesting that this site could accommodate between 1,350 (3,172 people) and 3,550 houses (8,342people).  Stonehouse town currently has around 3,500 houses.  So this change is to potentially introduce another town the size of Stonehouse, between Stonehouse and the Motorway corridor.


The closing date for this consultation is the 25th March 2015.  The consultation is immensely complicated and most residents would struggle to complete the SDC response form.  We have put an easy to complete response on the website: new-town.info


Eastington Parish remains under threat

On March 5th Tom Low, Andrew Niblett and others went to the planning appeal for Bath road.  We will know the outcome shortly. The whole Parish continues to be threatened by developers, given that so much land is owned by them (60%), and Council Officers have encouraged developer plans for our Parish. (Bath Road being a particularly good example).


There are those that would believe that if WoS goes ahead the rest of the Parish will be protected and there are others that believe that a large development in Alkerton would result in WoS being dismissed.  Sadly neither of these beliefs has any value.  Our Parish is near the Motorway and is vulnerable with this large amount of local land owned by developers.  Whatever the outcome from the Local Plan Eastington will continue to be at the receiving end of numerous speculative planning applications.  Our major defence is the soon-to-be-completed and out for consultation Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP). This is effectively the local plan for our neighbourhood. Please respond to this consultation when it appears early in April.


Ken Stephens Steps Down

For the last two years Ken has been a significant supporter of our campaign and we are very sorry to lose him as a councillor for our parish.  I stood against ken at the last election and lost to a good man.  He has worked tirelessly to help us deliver success.  Sadly on the 9th December 2014 councillors across all the political parties decided to abandon Stonehouse Town and Eastington Parish and vote through WoS as a strategic site.  Ken defended us to the last but without most of his colleagues supporting him the day was lost.  Ken, thank you for all you have done and enjoy your retirement.


Daniel James


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