ORA Office Closed For Easter Break

Please be aware that the ORA office will be closed for the Easter break from Friday, 29th March 2013 until Monday, 8th April 2013.

The Puzzle of Redhouse Village Centre

Planning approval has been given for 33 more houses on land at Redhouse Village Centre where there should have been a doctor’s surgery, retail units and other community facilities.  Residents are asking some questions: 

Ø  Why was no planning committee held to make this decision?

Ø  Why did local councillors pay the developer £240k for some land at the Village Centre?

Ø  Why did a local councillor say, at two public meetings, that the land was going to be given to SBC for nothing?

Ø  Why did a local councillor admit to seeing Village Centre plans in 2011 but didn’t obtain a copy of that plan for local people?

Ø  Is this the end of the much heralded cafe culture promised by local politicians to the residents of Oakhurst and Redhouse?

Please Mr Bumble; Can We Have A School Where We Want It?

It is with a sardonic irony that the Adver reports that Tadpole Farm will become the preferred site for a four-form-entry primary school in Priory Vale.  The council has been aware of the demand for school places for several years and funding provision had been made to meet the known demand. However, it carried out the following incomprehensible actions: 

 

1. It was clear from the building programme that two-form-entry schools were needed, yet it continued to provide one-form-entry schools.
2. This was coincidental in so far as Cllr Renard sat on a schools task group which carved up safety valve money for North Swindon schools and set out to build schools in South Swindon when there was already sufficient capacity.  In doing this, schools in the North were starved of building funds and new school places.
3. Parents of children in Priory Vale have been treated in a cruel manner and now find their children shunted around the Northern part of Swindon for no other reason other than political incompetence and muddled thinking.

Mouldon Hill Country Park Saved From Development

Tonight SBC’s Cabinet made the decision to place two primary schools on Tadpole Farm. One will be built with access from the Oakhurst Way/Tadpole Lane roundabout and open in September 2014; the second site will be built later.

As we are aware, local councillors preferred the Country Park as the site for the new school. Residents in Oakhurst wanted to keep the Country Park and were quite clear, during the consultation, that no building of such kind should take place there.

Residents in Oakhurst also wanted a local site for a local school and asked for the planned Tadpole Farm school to be brought forward. Residents tell us that they are pleased that common sense has won the day and that the school will be built on Tadpole Farm.

ORA would like to thank everyone who worked with us to save the Country Park from development. Local people are pleased that a school will be built that does not involve a long hike over difficult terrain.

The new school at Tadpole Farm will benefit the people of Oakhurst and will be less distance to travel for all of the Oakhurst children when compared to the Mouldon Hill Country Park site.

Redhouse Pub Site: Suitable Falls at Becher's Brook

The report to cabinet on 20th March concerning the suitability of school sites in North Swindon states:

3.18 In addition to the site assessment further investigation with the developer in ownership of the Redhouse Pub Site option has identified;

3.18.1 The site is not under the control of the Council and the developer has indicated that they are working on bringing the site forward for local centre uses in the immediate short term,

3.18.2 The land is not big enough to accommodate a school and playing pitches,

3.18.3 There are complex contractual arrangements between the members of the North Swindon Development Consortium relating to the funding of infrastructure land which could affect the purchase price for the Council.

Local School Places or Product Placement for Class Solutions?

Class Solutions…

SCS (think Direct Labour Department ) is an ‘arms length company’ owned in total by SBC. Mr Pickles has described such arrangements as ‘sock puppets’.

Class Solutions is an SBC/SCS design of wooden pods with huge roofs where a 2FE primary school will require 5 18metre x 18metre pods, 15 pitched roofs and 4 flat connecting roofs.  Also known as a Pop-Up School, in which North Swindon MP J Tomlinson has previously shown an interest.

Redhouse Village Centre site - As Clear As Mud then?

 

Communication from an SBC planning officer in response to a query from a member of the public. 

 

In accordance with the Council’s approved Scheme of Delegation 2012, the application was determined under delegated authority by the Service Manager-Development Management. No Borough Councillor or the Parish Council requested the matter to be placed before the Council’s Planning Committee for determination.

The decision was authorised and issued on 6^th March 2013. This is recorded on the application file.

Whilst the ‘hard’ file documents are clear that the decision was made under delegated powers, the electronic database, as you have pointed out, recorded otherwise. The database has been amended to reflect this.

This is a guest post