Redhill Grange Community Association

25th October - Letter from Government re Compansation

The Association's Hon Secretary advised that he has received a letter from from the Government in response to his letters, to both Gordon Brown and Hazel Blears, about compensation for the loss of property value if BBDs' Upper Redhill development goes ahead.

A scan of this letter has been included in the Image Gallery - click here to read

24th October - Bee Bee Developments advise revision to plan

In the following e-mail to the Association's Hon Secretary, Bee Bee Developments advise that they have made changes to their development plans for Upper Redhill:

Mike,
As ever, hope all well. Since our last meeting at the Council we have been doing some further work on the Upper Redhill application and thought it would be worth updating you on progress. This is particularly the case as we have now addressed the remaining major concerns that you and other residents raised both to us directly and to the Council at the meeting on 3rd September, so hopefully that below will come as good news.

At time of last discussion the foremost remaining concern of the residents was that the mixed use centre of the development was too close to the western edge of Redhill Grange and it was requested that we move the centre west, at least to the other side of the existing A509. Our understanding was that if this change was made your residents would be broadly happy that we had done our best to address their concerns, so we have now made it. This means that the area of woodland immediately west of Redhill Grange will now be left as it is, increasing the buffer between yourselves and the new development. In addition to this, the scale of retail proposed has also been reduced by a third, meaning it is now 4,000 sq m.

You will also note from the revised masterplan that I have attached (*) that we have reduced the amount of housing bordering Redhill Grange, omitting a large chunk to the immediate north and adding some extra space at the south east. Added to the previous amendments of increasing the general buffer around the Grange that we have discussed and also the prior road changes, we are hopeful that you will now be happy that you would not be engulfed by the new housing. The northern boundary of development has also been moved south in line with comments from both yourselves and Great Harrowden residents, which should also lessen any impacts.

Richard is aware that we have now carried out the trees and woodland survey that he requested, although I have not yet received the results. In truth these are no longer that relevant given that we will not be building on the affected land, but it is useful to have the information anyway and I will send Richard a copy for his interest as and when I get.

Hopefully this comes as welcome news and again demonstrate our genuine commitment to trying to make the new development as positive as possible for your residents. I am confident we have now addressed all your major concerns as best we can and hope that you will now be as happy as is possible and that the level of your objection will be correspondingly reduced. Finally, thanks for the constructive approach that you, Richard, Neil and company have taken in our more recent meetings, as these have been very helpful in refining the changes and I hope that, although there is always scepticism about developers, there will be some acknowledgement from your group that we have genuinely tried hard to listen to concerns from the residents and made very real changes to try and accommodate these where possible.

As always, do let me know if anything is unclear.
Many thanks,
Vittorio
Vittorio Davico
Bee Bee Developments Ltd

Click here to view the Revised Master Plan

Meeting with Peter Bone MP - 28th November 2008

Our MP, Peter Bone, has noted our concerns about both the BCoW's plans for the expansion North of Wellingborough and BBD's Upper Redhill planning application and has asked to be able to talk to residents about these concerns.

We have arranged the meeting for 7:30 p.m. on Friday 28th November 2008 at the Redwell Leisure Centre and hope that residents will take the opportunity to both hear what Peter has to say and make their views known to him.

If the Full Council does consider BBD's Upper Redhill planning application on Tuesday 25th November 2008 as planned, we will be able to take the opportunity to give you a report on the meeting as well.

It is important that Redhill Grange residents make every effort to come along so please make a note in your diary to keep the evening free.

Conservative Party's Position on Government's Growth Agenda

Having been told by the BCoW planning department (at the meeting on the 25th September) that a change of Government would not affect the Growth Agenda, we asked David Cameron the question. The reply that we received is below.

Hi Mike,

David Cameron has passed your letter onto Grant as the Shadow Housing Minister and he in turn has asked me to get back to you with his thoughts.

We have a simple position on the growth agenda which follows our broader housing policy - it will be up to local communities to decide – we won’t impose development where it’s not supported locally.

Best regards,
Tim Collins
--------------------------------------
Chief of Staff to Grant Shapps MP
Shadow Minister for Housing
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
020 7219 8497 / 07813 883473
collinsti@parliament.uk

For the record, the Association is non political and does not want to get involved in politics. However, it was felt that we should be aware of where the Conservative Party stood on the Growth Agenda issue in view of the BCoW's comments.

M J Chislett
Honorary Secretary
Redhill Grange Community Association

25th September 2008 Committee Meeting with Borough Council

On 25th September 2008, five members of the Committee attended a meeting with Borough Council of Wellingborough Corporate Director James Wilson and members of the Planning team, to discuss development to the North of Wellingborough and the Upper Redhill Planning Application.

The Borough Council took minutes of the meeting and these will be made available on the web site when our copy is received. In the meantime, some salient points for your information.

1. Bee Bee Developments' Upper Redhill planning application is scheduled to be put to a special meeting of the Full Council on Tuesday 25th November 2008. A second meeting of the Full Council, to consider the highways issues, is expected to take place in January 2009.

2. We were told that to satisfy the Government's Growth Agenda, Wellingborough needs to build 12,800 homes by 2021. Wellingborough East and other planned developments will only deliver 9,000 homes so the 3,000 shortfall has to be covered otherwise the Government will i) impose severe penalties and ii) possibly step in to manage the providing of the 3,000 homes.

3. Having considered all possible locations for providing the 3,000 homes shortfall, the officers see the North of Wellingborough as the obvious choice, particularly as the area has been identified in the North Northamptonshire Core Spatial Strategy, which the Government has approved, for a Sustainable Urban Extension.

4. James Wilson has offered to talk to a meeting of residents and we are trying to co-ordinate this with the AGM, the date of which has been provisionally set for Tuesday 18th November 2008. Note: In view of the importance of this issue, the AGM may have to be truncated to give residents the full opportunity to discuss matters of concern with Mr Wilson.

Perhaps you will make a note of Tuesday 18th November 2008 in your diary, otherwise you will miss what promises to be an "interesting" meeting with Mr Wilson.

We have to accept that the extension to the North of Wellingborough is inevitable but that does not mean that we have to accept that Bee Bee Developments' Upper Redhill proposals are the way it should be achieved. The Association is vigorously opposed to any development to the East of the A509 and we will continue to fight on that basis. Let us hope that our elected Councillors recognise that the settlement of Redhill Grange is unique and reject, at least, this unwanted area of development in the Upper Redhill proposals.

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Cash Grants Available !
Councillor James Ashton of the Northampton County Council has drawn our attention to the following:

Colleagues

The County Council has again decided that the sum of £10,000 should be spent
during this financial year to benefit the residents of each County Council
electoral division. The money to be spent in the Hemmingwell Division in
Wellingborough will be allocated on my recommendation, and I want it to be
used to the greatest advantage of the people who live in the area.

The division includes part of the Castle Ward, and I have already allocated
£2,000 to support the Castle Mela and Festival that was held in Castle
Fields on 31st August. However, because of crossed wires the final
allocation of £2,000 from last year's money was not effected, and I
therefore still have about £10,000 to allocate this year.

Because of next year's county council elections, councillors have been
advised that no decision to allocate this money in this financial year may
be made after 31 January 2009. However, to ensure that all of this year's
money is well used, I hope to have been able to allocate all of it by 30
November.

As before, it is easier to get the Council's approval for the allocation of
this money for capital spending, rather than revenue. Also whatever the
money is spent on must be either a one-off project or clearly sustainable.
The money cannot be used to pay expenditure that has already been incurred.
I would not support any commercial venture, or any which would only benefit
only one or a very small number of people.

The Political Assistant to the Labour Group on the County Council, Mick
O'Leary, is helping Labour councillors with the administration of this
scheme. If you have any questions about whether a project would be
eligible or the procedure that has to be complied with to obtain money from
this scheme, please contact him by email or on 01604 237397.

If there is a project that you wish to propose, please contact me by email
or call me on 01933 679405; if I'm not at home, please leave your name and
number, and say when you would be available, and I will call you back.

Kind regards
James Ashton
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Letter to Evening Telgraph and Herald and Post from the Redhill Grange Community Association dated 8th September 2008

Title: Is "Building our Future" in the right hands?

Dear Sir

Residents of North Northamptonshire should ask themselves; what sort of company is Bee Bee Developments and do they really want them to be 'Building our Future'? To answer the question, consider the situation in Wellingborough.

In November 2007 Bee Bee Developments submitted an outline planning application for their proposed Upper Redhill development. Then in March 2008 they submitted a second identical outline planning application for the same development. This was followed in August 2008 by a second submission of the second application.

The logic of Bee Bee Developments' approach seems convoluted to say the least and, although whatever they are doing may be legal, you have to ask; is it ethical?

Whatever game Bee Bee Developments are playing it certainly has the Borough Council of Wellingborough running around.

After the Government's agreement of the North Northamptonshire Core Spatial Strategy, the Council were tasked with producing a Site Specific Proposals Development Plan Document which would build on the policies in the CSS. Once completed, this document would go to public consultation in 2009 for adoption in 2010.

However, with Bee Bee Developments planning applications to consider by the end of this year, the Council chose to issue an interim planning guidance document to aid that consideration. That document was put to the September meeting of the Development Committee, who agreed it subject to certain amendments.

As there will be little chance that this interim document will go to public consultation, the established procedures will be ignored and the public will not, as is their right, be consulted; just to satisfy Bee Bee Developments' commercial ambitions. Against this background, the planned 2009 consultation on the Site Specific Proposals Development Plan Document would be too late to influence events and, to the people affected by any prior decision to approve the Upper Redhill application, largely irrelevant.

However, Bee Bee Developments have put the borough council in an invidious position. If they turn the application down, Bee Bee Developments will ask for a Public Enquiry. This will mean the council having to spend money defending their refusal, money that would be better spent for the benefit of the community, with little guarantee of success. On this basis, a cost/benefit analysis would say approve the application; which would not go down well with a lot of the people who will be voting at the next election.

In the final analysis, the Government's growth agenda is not welcome to many of us in this part of Northamptonshire and its' house building target is one target just asking to be missed.

As for the people who drive Bee Bee Developments ambitions, in an article in the Observer on Sunday May 30 1999, Alfred Buller, director of Bee Bee Developments is reported as saying 'The Irish are a nation of property people. They understand bricks and mortar. They're now making lots of money. They have an affinity with this country and are saying let's get stuck in: England's cheap.'

So, effectively, Mr Buller is saying we are a soft touch when it comes to property speculators making money. We have to wonder why?

The answer is probably in an article in Property Week in May 2005, on the day after a third successive Labour general election victory, Alfred Buller is quoted as being a relieved man, saying 'If we'd lost them, billions of pounds would have been wasted. The last term made it (John Prescott's Communities Plan) law. The next term will see the answer.'

Perhaps, with the possibility of a Labour Government not getting a fourth term, Mr Buller is faced with losing those billions after all; hence the rush to get the Upper Redhill planning application approved by the Borough Council of Wellingborough while the going is still good.

Yours faithfully
Redhill Grange Community Association

Sent on behalf of the Association's Committee by
R A Lovett, Chairman
M J Chislett, Honorary Secretary

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Borough Council of Wellingborough - Report to the 3rd September 2008 Development Committee Meeting - Upper Redhill - Sustainable Urban Extension

An emergency Redhill Grange Community Association Committee meeting was called on Monday 1st September 2008 to discuss the BCoW's Upper Redhill - Sustainable Urban Extension report. The contents of the report having given the Committee some cause for concern

The purpose of the BCoW report is to give guidance to the Council in the determination of Bee Bee Developments' Upper Redhill planning application in advance of the preparation, public consultation and agreement of the definitive Site Specific Proposals Development Plan Document. This latter document, which is to be based on the North Northamptonshire Core Spatial Strategy as approved by the Government, is not expected to be completed until 2010.

In discussion of the report, the Committee concluded :-

1. The titling of the document is most unfortunate as it indicates an undue influence by BBD on the contents of the report. To show independence the title should be WELLINGBOROUGH NORTH, which would fall in line with the use of Wellingborough East for the eastern SUE.

2. The CSS indicates that the development North of Wellingborough is expected to commence in about 2011. In spite of this, Policy 7 of the CSS enables the development to be brought forward earlier. This would mean that three major developments, i.e. Stanton Cross, Wellingborough Town Centre and Wellingborough North, would be ongoing at the same time; the logic of which has to be questioned.

3. The residents of Redhill Grange take vociferous and specific exception to paragraph 3.4 of Appendix 1 which makes Redhill Grange sound a terrible place to live when it is quite the opposite. Many residents moved there because of it's isolation from Wellingborough and, as for facilities, we have shops, a Post Office, food outlets, and a pub within walking distance and the Leisure Centre and other shops are not too far away. There is a local bus service to Wellingborough and a stop for the wider bus service is situated at the edge of the estate.

4. Following on from the above, we are totally opposed to the suggestion made in paragraph 5.2 of Appendix 1 that the opportunity should be taken to integrate Redhill Grange into the town. This settlement has sustained itself for over 30 years, a situation that will not be bettered by surrounding it with more houses

5. We take specific objection to the emphasis being place on protecting the settlements of Great and Little Harrowden from the Wellingborough North development when the "Settlement of Redhill Grange" deserves just as much protection from coalescence as these settlements. It should be remembered that i) the population of Redhill Grange far outnumbers that of Great Harrowden, ii) the precedence of preventing coalescence between Redhill Grange and Wellingborough has already been set by the gap left between Northen Way and the settlement and iii) the preservation of our outlook is important.

6. Mention is made of the views expressed at the 25th May 2006 workshop being taken into in the formulation of the policies in the report but that begs the question; who were the residents of Redhill Grange who were invited to attend the workshops?

It was then agreed that representatives from the Committee would attend the Development Committee Meeting and put the above, and some other points, to the Councillors and Officers present.

The presentations to the Development Committee were as follows:-

1. Richard Lovett: The proven sustainability of the estate for the last 30 years.
2. Graham Mover: The inadvisability of undertaking 3 major developments at the same time.
3. Richard Fraiel: The need to protect the ecology of the area.
4. Neil Kipling: The need to protect the outlook of existing residents
5. Mike Chislett: The need to maintain the identity and separation of the "settlement" of Redhill Grange from any development.
6. Sarah Lamin: The need to improve other areas first, primarily the town centre, to provide a greater attraction for people to move to Wellingborough.
7. Sue Suttle: The existing encroachment on Redhill Grange and residents desires, as expressed by their signing of a petition, that this encroachment should go no further.

The Development Committee agreed to consider the points made and then went on to discuss the sections of the report in detail: Development Boundary; Phasing; Market & Affordable Housing; Employment Provision; Green Infrastructure; Biodiversity; Open Space, Sport & Recreation; Transport & Public Transport; Pedestrians & Cyclists; Historic Environment; Retail and Community Facilities.

In the detail discussions the Development Committee asked for changes to be made to the report and delayed approving it until these changes had been made.

The Development Committee decided to delegate that final approval to the Chairman and the senior member of the Committee.

The RGCA Committee is now to await the publication of the final report before deciding on further action.

Mike Chislett
Honorary Secretary
Redhill Grange Community Association
8th September 2008