Plan unlikely to go ahead (From Gazette Series)

Plan unlikely to go ahead

THE PLAN to build 300 houses in Berkeley is highly unlikely to go ahead, according to one of the town's Stroud District councillors.

Cllr Ben Francis (Con) told Berkeley Town Council that the Government Office for the South West's intervention in the creation of a Gloucestershire Structure Plan had boosted the case for scrapping the recommendations of the Local Plan Inspector's Report.

"I think it is looking extremely healthy from our point of view," he said. "There is absolutely no will in the council to see that land built on.

"One councillor said to me 'It will go ahead over my dead body'."

However, town council chairman Cllr Ralph Pinnell, who is also a member of the Association of Berkeley Residents Against Insensitive Development, did not share Cllr Francis' confidence in SDC.

He suggested that district councillors had been barking up the wrong tree from the start.

Cllr Pinnell blasted: "They have been totally wrong in the way that they have tried to carry this process out."

He was referring to the fact that SDC appeared to be ready to put the Inspector's recommendations out to public consultation.

Cllr Francis argued that the Local Plan had to be put out for public consultation to avoid "planning by appeal" and an extreme likelihood of the 300 homes being built.

However, Cllr Pinnell explained that district councillors should put their own ideas into the plan and put that out for consultation instead.

He said: "They are going to put the wrong thing out for public consultation - they need to make their own plan."

When the SDC cabinet passed the Local Plan recommendations to full council in March, opposition councillors accused them of failing to consider other options.

Meanwhile, the town council has written to developers Crest Nicholson supporting them in their wishes to build more than 1,000 homes at Hunts Grove near Quedgeley.

The Inspector's report reduced the recommendations for Hunts Grovee to 500, which in turn resulted in the proposal for Berkeley.

Crest Nicholson has written back to the council thanking them for their support. SDC will discuss the issue at their meeting at Ebley Mill on Thursday, May 19.