Council planners to blame (From Gazette Series)

Council planners to blame

IT IS pointless blaming Tesco for the destruction of the Dursley regeneration plan, they act solely in their own commercial interest and if the negotiators didn't realise that they are even more naive than I thought.

The blame lies at the door of the district council and all who went along with their lack of detailed planning, half baked proposals and procrastinations over the past two decades. Now let us see if they've got a "Plan B".

The removal of the central key to the Dursley regeneration plan, and no amount of spin from Tesco will alter the fact that it is as dead as the Dursley Donkey, changes the whole thinking behind the town centre, Hollowcombe, Bymacks and Boulton Lane Developments.

The district council should now shelve the public consultation of the Proposed

Modifications to the Local Plan where it relates to Dursley pending a full re-assessment of Dursley's needs. They should look again at the changed traffic flow problem and the urgent need now for a Cam relief road.

The supermarket for Cam/Dursley, even though it will now be the wrong owner, will be in a more sensible location. All new housing and industry should follow it and be located between Cam and the A38.

We have to face the fact that Dursley is in a dead end with an infrastructure, particularly access connecting with the M5 and A38, that must deter any prospective manufacturer or house buyer investing in it.

Any more housing now in Dursley becomes an environmental disaster and should be stopped. Even the Bymacks development - Tesco can pay the compensation out of the broken agreement damages. Or hadn't they signed it as had been reported?

My suggested alternative is to make a leisure (recreational, hotel and restaurant) complex of Hollowcombe; a retirement village on Bymacks similar to the one at Nailsworth and convert Boulton Lane field into formal parkland with bowling green and tennis courts etc. Stroud has similar amenities at Stratford Park why shouldn't Dursley? And we could add a Cotswold Way campsite in the field - Stroud hasn't got one of those.

Jack Redfern 17 Five Acres Dursley