Oldland Common
Application Rejected
The latest (March 2010) Barry Road application was rejected by the council at the hearing held on 13th May.  As before we expect the developer to appeal, but we can relax for a little while.  Below is a picture of our team outside the hearing, kindly supplied by our new Kingswood MP Chris Skidmore who was there providing his full support:

Hearing 13th May at Civic Centre in Kingswood

The Barry Road planning application is due to be heard at the Civic Centre in Kingswood at 3pm on Thursday 13th May 2010. The applicant as before is Strategic Land Partnerships and the application number is PK10/0484/O.
Very little has changed from the original application with the exception of the associated infrastructure. This was refused as outlined in Agenda Item 11 on 15th October 2009, with the refusal reasons listed 1 - 16.

Oldland Common Save Our Green Spaces Group will be opposing the application and urging South Gloucestershire Council Planning Officers to agree with our views.
This is a premature application that assumes that the Regional Spatial Strategy is in force,and therefore overcomes our objections and provides the extenuating circumstances that permit building on green belt land.
The Regional Spatial Strategy has never been adopted so there is no reason for the application to be granted. South Gloucestershire Council estimates that 21,500 houses will be needed in the region by 2026 and has sufficient land to provide for those dwellings without building on the green belt.
We do not want to be in a similar position to Ireland or Spain. They have built excessive numbers of houses on prime farmland and are now currently debating what to do with them.

Vigilance of Residents
Due to the vigilance of residents near the Barry Road site, it has been reported that hedgerows have been destroyed and mud has been deposited at the opening of the badger setts by the tenant farmer. As both of these acts are illegal, Bitton Parish Council has been alerted as has the environment officer at South Gloucester Council and also the Police.
Could locals please continue to monitor the situation and report any new activity to Anne Upton who will take the matter further. Many thanks.


 

Letters of Objection

Oldland Commoners have given another resounding no to building on their green belt. A total of 1128 letters of objection were handed into John Calway, Head of South Gloucestershire Council, at the Civic Centre, Kingswood last Friday afternoon with little Harvey Parry insisting on handing his family's letters himself! These were collected in response to the new application by Strategic Land Partnership to build 450 houses at Barry Road and were even more in total than the last time round.
"We know that this is just round 1 but our green belt should not be sacrificed to greedy developers for houses that are not needed" said Oldland Common Save Our Green Spaces Chair, Anne Upton.
"We're not nimbys, we are lambys - looking after my back yard!"

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'STRATEGIC LAND PARTNERSHIPS' HAVE SUBMITTED ANOTHER PLANNING APPLICATION TO BUILD 450 HOUSES, CARE HOME, RETAIL UNITS (APPROX. SIZE OF 'LIDL' IN HANHAM) AND PRIMARY SCHOOL ON LAND ADJACENT TO BARRY ROAD, OLDLAND COMMON (OPP. CHERRYTREE PUB). THEY WITHDREW THEIR APPEAL TO THE FIRST APPLICATION BEFORE CHRISTMAS BUT THIS TIME IT SEEMS THEY MEAN BUSINESS. OUR LIVES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.

AND SO WE NEED YOUR OBJECTION LETTERS ONCE AGAIN.....IF WE ACT TOGETHER WE CAN STOP THEM...... 

DON'T BUILD ON GREEN BELT, THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S FOR!