Just over a week ago, West Berkshire Council voted through the Local Development Framework core strategy that lists potential sites for housing development in West Berkshire- including Pincent’s Hill.
Without digressing, here’s a picture to absorb:
From left to right; West Berkshire Tory Cllr Emma Webster, West Berkshire Tory MP candidate Alok Sharma, West Berkshire Tory Cllr Joe Mooney and West Berkshire Tory Cllr Tony Linden.
These three councillors represent all the seats in the Birch Copse Ward (my local ward- in fact Cllr Joe Mooney lives literally just round the corner from me).
Over the last few months i have received several leaflets through the post detailing how West Berkshire Conservatives are against the proposed housing development at Pincent’s Hill. In November they organised a local meeting at Little Heath School (attended by around 300 people) where they once again voiced their opposition to the development.
Now consider their voting actions during the voting for the Local Development Framework:
- Cllr Emma Webster- abstained
- Cllr Joe Mooney- voted for the LDF without amendment
- Cllr Tony Linden- did not turn up
The following reasons where given for these positions. Emma Webster holds a conflict of interests as she works for a company bidding to build another development in West Berkshire. Tony Linden was away on other council duty, and as he is not a member of the executive he couldn’t vote on this anyway. Joe Mooney pointed out that “the vote taking place is for this to go out to consultation, and not on any specific sites mentioned. That will take place when it goes to planning.”
A few things. One, don’t voice opposition to a proposal and hold public meetings to oppose something if you have a conflict of interests in the first place. Two, even if you can’t vote you can still turn up and voice your opinion and opposition if you indeed feel strongly about it. Three, if you are opposed to the development, you should do what you can to stop it happening- such as working to remove the site completely from the Local Development Framework.
What this comes down to really is that these councillors are only voicing in public what their Tory overlords require of them. It is indeed the New Labour government that is enforcing local councils and West Berkshire in particular to build 10,500 new homes, and because of this the council need to find places for these. Nationally the Torys, as you would expect them to do, oppose this New Labour idea. [So do i]. Our local councillors need to show that they support what the Tory headquarters says. Whether they put it into practise or not is irrelevant as long as you get the message out that your party is united.
The local Tory opposition has now been exposed as a front for national Tory opposition to New Labour’s national housing policy. These councillors don’t care about what their constituents think, instead they are turning this issue into a political issue in an attempt to mobilise their constituents against New Labour and for the Tories.
Local New Labour MP Martin Salter is opposed to the Pincent’s Hill development (despite his government’s housing plans) and has said “They [the Tories] had the perfect opportunity to deter the developers once and for all by deleting this site from the preferred list, but they have bottled it.” I would go further- i don’t think you can trust a Tory (not even David Davis in his crusade for civil liberty). I think it is obvious that the West Berkshire Conservatives are deliberately leading people in the local area on- opposition to the development is understandably widespread in the area- if the local Tories were not seen to be with the majority public, then god forbid they may lose their seats at the next election.
In simular vein to a local political blogsite, click here and here for good analysis of some of the political goings on surrounding the development. And carrying on the tradition of my last post on the topic, please sign the petition against building on Pincent’s Hill here, visit the local campaign website here and the facebook group here.
For those who wish to take the fight further and directly voice your disappointment to those councillor ‘betrayers’ then here are their emails: jmooney@westberks.gov.uk ewebster@westberks.gov.uk and tlinden@westberks.gov.uk
Further from the email i sent to West Berkshire Planning department you can view near the bottom of this blog post, i have received the following reply:
Thank you for your e-mail objecting to potential housing development at Pincents Hill.
The Council is currently preparing the Core Strategy of the Local Development Framework, which will set out the strategic vision for the development of the district to 2026. As part of this work we need to identify a number of strategic housing sites which can help deliver the housing that will be needed over the next 17 years. The Council have recognised throughout the preparation of the Core Strategy that some greenfield land will be needed to meet the housing requirements of the district.
The site at Pincents Hill has been brought forward for consideration, along with a number of other large sites, and we have carried out assessments of the sites, including sustainability appraisal covering analysis of the social, economic and environmental issues.
The Council is intending to carry out extensive consultation on the options for the Core Strategy shortly. If you wish to receive notification of the consultation you can register on our consultation database at www.westberks.gov.uk/ldfconsultation . Alternatively you can e-mail planningpolicy@westberks.gov.uk or contact the planning policy team by post or phone with your details.
Digressing from the email but not the topic, one thing i will be looking into concerning Pincent’s Hill is what precisely the large trench is for that has been dug from the site of the proposed development down through the park and which stops just before the A4 Bath Road. Looks suspiciously like water/sewage supply. Now i don’t want to initiate a conspiracy here, and it is probably something completely innocent, but, perhaps the council have decided that this development is going to happen regardless- so they feel they may as well get everything in place beforehand? No, no that must not be right- surely local government wouldn’t try and pass one over the residents like that…. would they?
