Is Flint listening?

Caroline Flint has asked people all over the country to write and email with their concerns regarding the Eco-Town shortlist. This was to be a democratic public consultation, however, for some reason her department has fallen silent on the matter.

I wrote several letters to Ms Flint who has chosen not to responded to any of my concerns. It appears Ms Flint and Labour are ignoring the facts that eco-towns in some areas are unwanted and unconvincing, despite the green bodge job glossed over this absurd idea.

We had only three months to voice our concerns... Everyday I wait for a response... Its been several months now Ms Flint... Is this democratic and fair?

Hi Mr. Gummidge. Hope you had a good summer.

I am trying to comment on the Does Caroline Folint Listen entry in the Blog but, as usual, stumble when I have to enter my password and user name - which is never recognised. However, perhaps you would be kind enough to print my comment below on that entry. Many thanks, Tricia Wales

I too have written to ms Flint on several occasions and have sent a copy of each letter to Gordon Brown. I have received two letters from 10 Downing Street thanking me and acknowledging the copy letters I have sent, but surprise surprise not a dicky bird from Caroline Flint Which shows what an ignorant, uneducated individual we are dealing with here, who is without even basic common courtesy or manners!

OFFICIAL - Only 50 Hectares of Brownfield land in whole of Arun District

The Department for Communities and Local Government today released figures on the amount of land which is previously developed etc (Brownfield) which may be available for housing and other development (Technology parks, marinas, parkway stations etc etc).

Report here:- http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/945914.pdf

Interestingly for the whole of Arun district, there is only 13ha previously developed land, 26ha land currently in use but with potential for housing development and (with other categories) - makes a total of only 50 ha in the whole district.- From Ferring to Pagham, and Littlehampton to Findon.

Now, our friends at Ford Airfield Vision Group (a misnomer if ever I heard one) and Ford Enterprise Hub, claim their (eco) new town covers 350ha, which even if all this identified "brownfield" land is at Ford, and within the curtilage of the land their greedy farmers wish to concrete over; that is only 1/7th (14.3%) of their new town land - that's therefore 85.7% which if it ain't brownfield land, must be greenfield land.



This is for the whole of Arun district too!

Interesting!

Another one bites the dust - Tesco withdraw Hanley Grange

Announced today - Hanley Grange in Cambridgeshire is now off the list of Eco Towns. This was the site proposed by Tescos and universally opposed by local residents. A few weeks ago a partner in the scheme, the Wellcome Trust, withdrew their land from the proposal.

Today Tescos has followed suit and bowed to the local opposition and withdrawn from the Government's shortlist.

Here is a link to the local newspaper - http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/DisplayArticle.asp?id=343987 - it is interesting to read the quote from Tescos:

"We also believe a genuinely sustainable community stands the best chance of being successful if a broad range of stakeholders in the region feel fully engaged in the process leading up to a decision."

I think we can take that as recognition from Tescos that their involvement in this undemocratic Eco Town process, looking to impose huge developments against the wishes of all concerned, is never going to lead to success. They are reserving the right to bring their proposal back again through local democracy - would that the Ford Eco Town proposers would do the same! But the partners in the Ford Airfield 'Vision' Group have failed trying that so many times that theyknow that local democracy will not allow them to ruin our countryside. I doubt they've got the nerve to risk it!

Petition handover date

On 2 October a delegation from CAFE will be presenting our petition to Downing Street. We have so far got nearly 1,000 signatures on the No 10 Petitions website:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/No-Ford-Eco-Town/

And over 10,000 people have signed our paper petition - so if you have would like to sign the petition and have not done so - or perhaps if you have family or friends who support us, but have not signed yet - then now is a good time to get them to do so!

http://www.nofordecotown.co.uk/downloads/cafe_petition.pdf