Parish Council fails to consult local community effectively on new development.

[Pensioner1]

Our Parish Council was 'sold' a former WAAF site by the County Council several years ago. The site has been taken over by nature and is a hectare of rare, wildlife habitat. At that time the land was to be used by local schools and developed as a site for nature study and ecology. In effect, a nature reserve. However, the PC did not use it. They have now invited developers to build affordable homes on the land. So many in our village knew nothing about it until recently as the PC only communicated their plans through their own website rather than by leaflets or village noticeboards. The PC defends this at its meetings but did promise to try to better in future! Is this something that we just have to accept and lose this precious wildlife haven? The developers have this week submitted their plans to the County Council and many of us locals are up in arms.

[PallasAthena]

islandgirl recently posted that she is member of a parish council and may be able to comment.

I doubt that there's a legal requirement that the PC has to leaflet every home about its plans if it has put the information on its website. You too have obligations to read the PC's website if you want to know what is going on!

[Pensioner1]

islandgirl recently posted that she is member of a parish council and may be able to comment.

I doubt that there's a legal requirement that the PC has to leaflet every home about its plans if it has put the information on its website. You too have obligations to read the PC's website if you want to know what is going on!

Thank you for your reply. It is a small village and has a number of elderly residents who do not use the internet extensively. The PC were asked at a meeting a few months ago to be more effective in reaching all residents especially as this was Parish land and its use was to be changed. We find it hard to accept that they can do that. Not many of our neighbours check the Parish Council website - some may look on the village FB page for news. I guess, even the FB page would have been fairer as the PC do use that to communicate other events.

[des8]

So the County Council will have to post consultation notices about the proposed change of use , and about the plans to build on the land.
Suggest you use the time available to leaflet every house in the village drawing residents attention to the proposed changes, advise them how to register their comments and possibly even suggest grounds for their objections.

I did it once to draw local attention to include ancient ash forest in county development plans. It worked as the council received more comments about that than anything else in the county, and it was removed from areas approved for development

[islandgirl]

Well a parish council that has money to buy something like this is news to me! This may possibly be a breach of some rules but it is up to you to report it to the district council's standards committee. Get your district/borough councillor involved and make your objections known. The most important thing is to object to planning permission - obtaining this is the only way they can move forward.

[echat11]

We know Council's do what they like, when they like, the local park has fallen into disrepair, there use to be an amazing floral display at the entrance to the park, no longer, it's all dead vegetation. If you ask them, they say something stupid like they are creating a habitat for birds. Long a go each park use to have a park keeper, it's amazing how he maintained the park.