Newton St Loe Conservation Group Public meeting

Gail Coleshill, Lib Dem spokesperson, is attending a public meeting on Tuesday November 3rd at 7.30pm in Corston Church, called by the Newton St Loe Conservation Group.

She said:

“Worried residents of Newton St Loe have discovered that neighbouring parishes of Saltford and Corston did not even know about the proposed allocation of housing development on land between the Globe Inn and Twerton. They are calling this meeting with a representative from B&NES planning department to find out more about the plans.”

The B&NES Core Strategy names land west of Twerton as the preferred option for the Government’s requirement of an extra 2000 houses on the edge of Bath. The landowner (Duchy of Cornwall) supports the proposal and has been having discussions with planners about moving forward.

(The photo above shows Gail, with Lib Dem campaigner Louise Bray, and Newton St Loe residents).

Say NO to 2,000 homes next to Newton St Loe

This week, North East Somerset Liberal Democrats have published a special edition of 'Focus' with reference to B&NES Council's plans to build 2,000 homes next to Newton St Loe.

To read it click here.
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More work needed on land-use paper

B&NES Council has adopted a land-use policy paper setting out options for distribution of land for housing and jobs from 2011-2026.

Liberal Democrat Councillors voted to abstain on the paper citing concerns over the lack of preparation of the document. The Lib Dems have previously opposed the increased housing targets imposed by central government.

“We believe that our community should set housing needs targets, not the RDA or central government in London”, stated Councillor Paul Crossley (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group and Councillor for Southdown).

“Whilst points in the recommendation before us tonight were in line with our policies on housing and land-use, we did not feel that the ‘spatial options’ paper was ready for publication.

“The Conservative administration of the Council has not allocated enough resources to the planning department to properly prepare the proposals – for example, we have been told that insufficient funds were available to carry out infrastructure modelling.

“However, we recognise that the Government requires this work to be done, even though the targets are undeliverable, so we did not vote against the proposals to ensure that local people would have their say and would be able to object once again to these unreasonable, centrally-imposed targets.

“A real consultation will show changes when the strategy comes back next year.“