[DaveO]

Re: Tories plan for North? : Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:49 am  

Him wrote:

Whilst touching on the subject of infrastructure, where I live on the outskirts of York, City of York Council are planning to allow large amounts of house building. Which would be fine were it not for there being no planned infrastructure improvements whatsoever.
They are looking to increase the size of the town by approx 30-40% without any transport, education or health improvements. The town centre is already packed full on a daily basis, the roads are packed at rush hour and the schools are oversubscribed, partly due to the council closing a school a few years ago.

It's just ridiculous.

Funny you should say that because the same thing is scheduled to happen in Chester on Green Belt land to the South of the City. For those who know the area it is on land between Wrexham Road and Westminster Park housing estate which means its next to Chester Business park.

The significance of that is this area is already gridlocked at busy times and no infrastructure improvements are planned here either. There are also concerns about how it will affect drainage (read flood risk!).

When this plan came up the first time it was based on some study suggesting Chester needed 4000 new homes. That figure has been revised down considerably since then but the plan is still to build 4000 houses.

Councils are supposed to plan new building to meet requirements so when it was first planned they were complying with legislation but now they aren't. They are not supposed to enter into developments that can be deemed "aspirational" i.e. developments built on the hope they will be required rather than based on a need.

Still pencilled in to go ahead though!

The last time Chester's Green Belt was threatened it was for a Sports Centre and flats for the University (not commissioned or requested by the University but more speculative development) in an area about a mile outside the city. The Tory chair of the planning committee cast his vote to overrule the planners thus voting the proposal down so his Tory colleagues sacked him, appointed a puppet who then waved it through.

It got stopped when it came to light several Tory councillors had a vest interest in the development and had not excluded themselves from a full council vote as they needed to do. When this came out the vote was overturned and scratch one development.

I am waiting for something similar to crop up again!

Re: Tories plan for North? : Wed Jun 25, 2014 12:54 pm  

A lot of Tory councils are acting in an Stalinist land-grabbing fashion.

In our small town there are 3 over-subscribed secondary schools which surrounding villagers have traditionally sent their kids to. Demand has increased through additional numbers. The County Council had a moth-balled school in the next, smaller town (one of the "villages") which despite a demand crisis they sold a couple of years ago for housing development (adding to the demand crisis!). Their proposed solution is to compulsorarily purchase a bit of farm land on the end of our town (on the road to where the sold off school was!) and build a whopping academy, totally out of keeping with the locality and on a small A road which is already a bottle-neck!!

To me a total abuse of power - sell off an existing asset and then use powers to buy land cheaper and then act against the will of local residents.

A recipe for corruption if you ask me.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Wed Jun 25, 2014 8:26 pm  

Dally wrote:

A lot of Tory councils are acting in an Stalinist land-grabbing fashion.

In our small town there are 3 over-subscribed secondary schools which surrounding villagers have traditionally sent their kids to. Demand has increased through additional numbers. The County Council had a moth-balled school in the next, smaller town (one of the "villages") which despite a demand crisis they sold a couple of years ago for housing development (adding to the demand crisis!). Their proposed solution is to compulsorarily purchase a bit of farm land on the end of our town (on the road to where the sold off school was!) and build a whopping academy, totally out of keeping with the locality and on a small A road which is already a bottle-neck!!

To me a total abuse of power - sell off an existing asset and then use powers to buy land cheaper and then act against the will of local residents.

A recipe for corruption if you ask me.

The solution to the housing crisis is to follow that example, just as happened immediately post WW2. Buy up cheap agricultural land with no planning permission on it, hence why it is cheap. Grant yourself planning permission and build affordable homes to rent. If you also introduce LVT you can then charge land taxes on banked, undeveloped land that already has planning permission and is simply sitting there "waiting for the market"

[DaveO]

Re: Tories plan for North? : Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:27 pm  

Dally wrote:

A lot of Tory councils are acting in an Stalinist land-grabbing fashion.

In our small town there are 3 over-subscribed secondary schools which surrounding villagers have traditionally sent their kids to. Demand has increased through additional numbers. The County Council had a moth-balled school in the next, smaller town (one of the "villages") which despite a demand crisis they sold a couple of years ago for housing development (adding to the demand crisis!). Their proposed solution is to compulsorarily purchase a bit of farm land on the end of our town (on the road to where the sold off school was!) and build a whopping academy, totally out of keeping with the locality and on a small A road which is already a bottle-neck!!

To me a total abuse of power - sell off an existing asset and then use powers to buy land cheaper and then act against the will of local residents.

A recipe for corruption if you ask me.

It's not corruption it's policy! Don't you see?

The giveaway was the word "academy" in your post. There is literally shed loads of money available from central government if you want to set up one of those. I am sure the will to make them happen re planning/land is there as well.

Well I know all the above is true as it is what is happening here.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Thu Jun 26, 2014 1:10 pm  

It's usually a sign of an upcoming election when Gideon and his ilk express faux concern for the North. Personally I'm not bothered about getting to Manchester quicker but wouldn't mind a seat now and again. Just putting another carriage on would suit me fine!

Re: Tories plan for North? : Thu Jun 26, 2014 9:57 pm  

Could the money be better spent? http://www.standard.co.uk/business/busi ... 64930.html

Could the money be better spent? http://www.standard.co.uk/business/busi ... 64930.html

Re: Tories plan for North? : Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:09 pm  

I can't see the Conservatives being in power at the next election so this is all pie in the sky.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:35 am  

Making Northern Rail modernise their rolling stock would be a good start to improving transport in the North, I believe their contract has no clause for replacing their trains, hence we have 70s/80s trains still.

I agree with another poster that we need more than just a high speed rail link, as RL fans know more than most as soon as the M62 has a delay the North is at a standstill, we need more alternative routes and bypasses.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:41 am  

King Street Cat wrote:

I can't see the Conservatives being in power at the next election so this is all pie in the sky.

On the contrary, I can, I dont see any opposition to them with any sort of domination in the media that will present any sort of challenge. The deciding majority of votes in any general election are usually decided within the last few days before polling and in that respect its all down to what the media decide to tell you - the football supporter style voters may think that they control an election but its the majority who have no allegience who decide and they will put a cross in whatever box they have been told to, the Tories currently hold all the aces and you wouldnt want to be in charge of an oppositions PR campaign right now with what they have.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:42 am  

King Street Cat wrote:

I can't see the Conservatives being in power at the next election so this is all pie in the sky.

On the contrary, I can, I dont see any opposition to them with any sort of domination in the media that will present any sort of challenge. The deciding majority of votes in any general election are usually decided within the last few days before polling and in that respect its all down to what the media decide to tell you - the football supporter style voters may think that they control an election but its the majority who have no allegience who decide and they will put a cross in whatever box they have been told to, the Tories currently hold all the aces and you wouldnt want to be in charge of an oppositions PR campaign right now with what they have.