MORE than 150 people attended a planning day for a proposed housing development in Thornbury as the community was invited to publicly voice their ideas and concerns.

Despite complaints of a limited window of notification, the community planning day for the proposed 350-house Cleve Park development on the fields adjoining Morton Way and Grovesend road was well attended on Saturday, February 6, with many staying to take part in the workshops on offer.

It was noticeable however that the younger population of Thornbury were not in attendance at the event, but with many of the attendees feeling the need to raise concerns that would affect today’s youth, the townspeople attempted to bring a community-wide view to the table.

A number of visitors voiced concerns during the event over the need for further housing in Thornbury, with 925 new homes already set to be build in the Post Farm, Park Farm and Thornbury Fields developments, that are expected to put heavy strain on the town’s existing infrastructure and traffic issues.

“I think it has been a very good presentation, getting the local community involved which they should be,” said Thornbury resident Kevin Simpson.

He added: “Having children myself, I am trying to make the case for the youth of the town.”

Thornbury Town Cllr Clare Fardell said: “We only had a short amount of notice to make the time to attend, and so it was not a truly representative sample, but people have settled down and began talking about the issues that need discussing.”

Thornbury resident Keith Woosnam said: “I came here to argue totally against the proposal, whether or not it ends up that way, they have listened to us.”

Cllr Shirley Holloway said: “It is hard to talk about the development when I am so against it, but if we have to have the buildings then we need to ask what we would also require to make it work.”

In the final workshop of the day, residents were split into groups with members of the planning team to discuss different topics relating to the development, feeding back their findings at the end.

“It needs to integrate with Thornbury as a place, much like in city communities where there are young people, old people, and people of all different nationalities all together,” said resident Maggie Sugden, who spoke on behalf of her group.

“It needs to be a place where you actually want to live, not live in and leave.”
Following the event, Charles Campion, lead architect of the Cleve Park site, said: “There was a very full discussion throughout the day, covering a wide range of concerns and ideas.

“It was impressive to see how involved people wanted to be in the final workshop, it was a really thorough audit and analysis in the space of just an hour.

“We will go away, summarise, assess and analyse what has been discussed today to put together a vision of a development that would add to the community of Thornbury.”

Following on from the event, architects JTP will present their plans for Cleve Park to the public on Wednesday, February 17, at 6.30pm at the Armstrong Hall.