The Jan/Feb issue of Focus, the Lib Dems News Letter raises concerns regarding the proliferation of housing development around the edges of Thornbury, their latest concern being a proposed development off Butt Lane and the fact that S.Glos Council have belatedly realised in the JSP that the development of the town to a sensible footprint is long overdue.
After years (since 2011) of focusing attention to the unbalanced development of Thornbury through the good offices The Gazette, S.Glos Planning and our Town Council – to no effect – the Joint Spatial Planning team have now produced a Development Plan(Nov2018) which much to the chagrin of our Lib Dem Councillors shows land to the West and North of centre scheduled for housing etc .
By their (Lib Dems) remonstration, one wonders if they have been the ‘nimby’ in concert with S.Glos Planning which has allowed Developers to plonk ghetto like developments such as Park Farm/Thornbury Fields etc. without any thought for a cohesive and organised Town Plan, totally overlooking the need for basic infrastructure such as primary distributor roads.
Barwood again looks like one of these and although its location is not unreasonable, the absence of the above mentioned basic infrastructure will produce yet another ghetto preventing sensible cohesive and expandable development as time and need dictates.
Returning to the JSP's development plan; oddly they appear to have included ground not ideally suited for development, ie. the hill slopes below the Golf Course and adjacent to and to the south of Midland Way.
As far as I am aware, another failure is the lack of major infrastructure which Focus and TRAPP’D (Thornbury Residents Against Poorly Planned Development) have quite rightly referred to but appear to be using it as an excuse to prevent any development of this area.
What should be delineated is a primary distributor road necessary for access to the areas now shown on the overall plan. Development could then proceed in an orderly manner with allocation of areas of land for facilities such as schools and health etc.
In the interim S.Glos must defer planning consent for the NW Consortium until a route is defined and incorporated in the development plan.
Michael Neale
Thornbury
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