DESPITE objections from residents, a veto from elected planners and an impassioned plea from a borough councillor, the green light has been given to a controversial plan for 153 new homes in Thurrock, though it failed to win the approval of the one local man on the decision-making committee.
At today’s Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation planning committee plans for the new homes behind the Bannatynes Fitness Centre in Howard Road, Chafford Hundred, approval was granted for the scheme – which has been 18 months in the making.
Architect Alan Camp, speaking for developers Stephen Howard Homes, spoke up for the plan, which features a mix of flats, terraced houses, studio apartments and a new purpose-built doctor’s surgery, saying: "What you have before you is the culmination of 18 months’ work and consultation and we have taken on board people’s concerns."
However, his words cut no ice with Chafford Hundred South councillor Tunde Ojetola who said the scheme wasn’t wanted.
"Chafford Hundred is already over-saturated and is now jam-packed. Originally Chafford Hundred was planned for 2,500 dwellings, now we’ve already got 8,000.
"Our three primary schools and one secondary school are over-subscribed, we’ve had residents demonstrating in the streets about it but there is simply no space to build more classrooms.
"As for traffic, you’ve only got to be in Chafford Hundred at a holiday or festival time, or when there’s a problem on the motorway, and it’s grid-locked. You simply can’t move in Chafford Hundred. The place is jam-packed, please don’t pour more people into Chafford Hundred."
However, senior planning officer Nigel Hebden made light of his objections, saying that Thurrock Council education officers hadn’t flagged up potential problems and the scheme had been approved by the highways authorities.
There was no discussion on the views of Thurrock Council’s planning committee, who opposed the plan for a number of reasons including quality of design, noise problems and that residents in the new development would have an ‘unsatisfactory living environment’ - though member Sunny Crouch did express her disapproval of the studio apartments in the plan which she described as ‘bedsits.’
When it came to a vote, Mrs Crouch was one of two of the unelected decision-makers, the other being local man Grahame Thomas, who didn’t vote for the scheme and developers are now expected to press ahead with the development on a site once earmarked for a casino.
The scheme proposes five blocks within the site together with 16 houses arranged around two landscaped courtyards. In total it will include 137 flats.
One of the blocks will include a doctors’ surgery with three consulting rooms which the developers say will meet the needs of between 3,000 and 4,000 people in the vicinity.
Among conditions laid down for the developers are that they will pay just short of £300,000 towards education, £153,000 for highways improvements, £76,500 towards local community facilities and make a contribution to local sports facilities.
Thirty per cent of the homes will also have to be ‘affordable housing.’
The purpose of this personal blogsite is to pass Ward or Thurrock related information across, and to allow residents comment on plans or proposals. Residents suggestions for developments in the community are certainly very welcome.
7 comments:
Tunde boy, you must be disappointed here. of course the real issue is that you and the other councillors did no campaigning to really raise this issue and were not really proactive. Too little too late, a couple of speeches weren't ever going to be sufficient here. Where were the petitions, letters to the gazette, completely alternative proposals, or even demos. People felt strongly enough but needed leadership which you clearly didn't give. you should have aken a leaf out of the chafford schools campaign which defeated your administration but showed how to run a successful campaign. This is another peice of land which was badly needed in Chafford, due to the lack of Community facilities, which if you and your cronies had acted when you came to power years ago, I've no doubt you could have secured for the community and at least the 8000 residents on Chafford could have had a football pitch or other sport facilities, instead of the current situation, where they have nothing. There's little land left now, so its even more precious, given this got the go ahead and we've still got no facilities. You and your chums have made enough noise around community facilities, why not concentrate less on running various departments within Thurrock Council and more on sorting out this crticial issue for the people who elected you, to do just that. I invite you to comment and get involved below and ensure the last couple of bits of land are secured and the good people of chafford are given the same sort of transport and sporting facilities as the rest of the borough. The current situation is disgraceful and shameful.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nothingtodoinchafford/
www.ipetitions.com/petition/nothingtodoinchafford/
Cllr Tunde,
the report below says you were baffled by the approach from the council education department.
I put it to you, that essentially you put in minimal effort here and you shuld be ashamed that you of all people weren't aware of what the council officials had put forward to the ttgdc. You are our elected Councillor for gods sake and as such, you were the only one allowed to speak on this, when in fact residents had a better understanding and argument than you.
http://www.thurrockgazette.co.uk/news/3570258.Education__boss_quizzed_as_Chafford_councillor_rages_over_new_homes_decision/
Please answer this question.
Why had you not made the effort before the meeting, to find out what input the council had made to ttgdc?
IMPASSIONED PLEA
Why are you proud to have made an impassioned please? You should have been aware of the councils input, in particular the education departments and you could have made a reasoned argument. There's many millionsof pounds involved here and amatuerish impassioned pleas, are not the way to get results in such situations.
This is surreal. You and your colleagues are supposed to be leading this council, yet it seems the tail is once again wagging the dog.
There will always be people who are not satisfied. There are 4 councilors in chafford, only one attended the meeting and he is being blamed for the new developments. Why are you criticising the one that attended?
Why are we not criticising the government that put this unelected team incharge of planning when the Council's planning team had already refused permission for the development. Look well before you shoot.
I suspect Tunde is being criticised as he's done an appalling job here. One need only look at Tundes latest statement to see he had no awareness of what the councils representation had been to the TTGDC here. As a councillor for the affcetd ward, I would agree he should have been pro-active enough to work with all the council officers and understand the message being put forward by the council. Something he failed to do. He should not have awaited for the TTGDC to tell him at their meeting, what the councils represnetation was, he should have know it, he is the council, as far as residents go.
We have 4 tory cllrs on Chafford, 2responsible for this ward and 2 responsible for the other. One would hope they would work as a team as regards anything to do with Chafford but it does not appear to be the case, else one of the others could have made themselves party to the information and briefed Tunde before his too liitle too late speech.
Yes the governemnt have a lot to answer for here, it's not a model I would like to see them repeat. However Thurrock council were willing participants in handing over there powers, and as such Tunde is fully aware of the contraints he is operating in and who he needs to influence. He's treat this like another council meeting, where his cronies are running the shop, so he gets his own way. Unfortunately the make up of this meeting, is far removed from the croniism of a local authority meeting, hence the failure, and the unresearched speech. Its simply unprofessional to act in this way.
http://www.uklinx.co.uk/C100/documents/misc/Thurrock_UDC.pdf
See the above link, where Thurrock Council explicitly expressed support for TTGDC taking over, so its not entirely the govenrments fault. However the council wilingly gave away their powers, so the council refusal means nothing, as it's not down to them, its academic.
As regards the other councillors, there usual silence is shameful, at least Tunde makes the right noises, even if the actions behind the noises aren't there. Isn't Cllr Hague a paid member of the TTGDC board, so maybe that prevents him from speaking, not sure of the protocol or etiquette here?
These guys are more interested in the politics of running the council and getting paid many thusans of pounds for doing so, than actually properly represnting the good people of Chafford Hundred. Why they are continually unable to provide community facilities, whilst other councillors appear to be able to do so, is beyond me. I just think they can't be bothered, at this time.
Tunde,
fair play to you. I thought you were going to supress my last comment and you have not. I commend your attitude in accepting this criticism and I'm pleased to see the petition, which I will of course sign. Well done for accepting and publishing the argument and also for recognising all is not lost, lets hope people get behind this effort and the situation is redeemed. If the people of Chafford don't sign the petition, then they have only themselves to blame for this mess getting worse, regardless of your actions.
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