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7. Why it Pays to be Independent
8 Pttville
11. Combined Heat and Power Generators
12. An Integrated Transport Scheme
For over 30 years PAB members have sought to bring common sense to debates at County, Borough and Parish Councils by keeping party politics out of the local council chamber.
We are committed to maintaining clear communications with the residents we serve, not only at election time, but through our twice yearly Newsletters and to ensure that their views are heard and their best interests served.
Our principal policies include the protection of the green belt and the preservation of the green open spaces of our town.
Our support for
Councillor Les Godwin.
(Group Leader PAB Group)
There
is nothing worse than having one’s home flooded, yet, this happens repeatedly
in Prestbury and has done so for many years.
The
brooks and streams that criss-cross the parish are now referred to as rivers by
the Environment Agency and as such they are now their responsibility and not the
Borough Council.
Many
people will know that the surface water from the hill and the adjoining
farmlands soaked away in the surrounding fields, or ran into surface streams or
was channelled into the storm drains installed in the residential areas.
With
additional development it has become increasingly difficult for the drains to
cope, added to this a number of streams have been put into underground culverts,
which in turn become blocked when high rainfall occurs. There is an additional
problem with the ditch at the top of
At
the time of publication we can tell you that a scheme is being drawn up by
Gloucestershire Highways and hopefully the work will be started before the end
of the year.
Other
parts of Prestbury, particularly the Noverton
Area, High Street, Deep Street, Tatchley Lane, New Barn Lane, Brymore Avenue,
Linden Avenue, Elm Close and Apple Orchard have experienced flooding as a
result of normal rainfall and of course, suffered again when excessive amounts
of rainfall fell in July this year.
We
have met the Environment Agency to plead the case that the final connection to
the Tewkesbury Borough Council culvert, which is in the ground from Idsall
House to Mill Street adjacent to
the boundary between the Lower Mill
and Mead House, should be carried out
as a matter of urgency to mitigate the flow of surface water that we refer to
above.
The
Environment Agency agreed to look again at the detailed costs of connecting the
two sets of pipes that are currently lying in the ground and whether any
expenditure would be cost-effective. The PAB argument is that it is
cost-effective if they only looked at the amount of compensation paid to
affected house owners, the repeated cost of repair to our roads, the danger to
surrounding areas if emergency vehicles should be unable to pass through
Prestbury, and the general disruption that it causes.
If
local residents, especially those who were affected by the floods, wish
to write to the Environment Agency expressing the view that the Agency
should get on and connect the two sets of pipes then please write to the
following. Mr Guy Mason, Environment Agency, Riversmeet House, Northway
Industrial Estate, Northway,
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‘GARDEN
GRABBING’ AND THE IMPLICATIONS
A
foreign visitor once described
In
1901, Dr J. Garrett, Cheltenham’s Senior Health Officer wrote “Whether you
look at it as one great garden or a place where a garden is attached to almost
every home,
That
homage to a beautiful town will become meaningless unless we find a way to stop
the continuing loss of our open spaces and private gardens to development.
PAB
councillors recognise that front and rear gardens are important green lungs in
our local environments. They provide natural habitats, they contribute to the
surface water drainage in the local communities and generally they make the
local areas decidedly better.
We
have been corresponding with Housing Ministers in both Houses of Parliament and
the statements that repeatedly come back to us is that Government guidance
policy is exactly that ‘guidance’ and it is up to each district council to
decide what is best for their towns and cities. The Housing Minister also made
the point to us that the main purpose of the guidance is to “encourage
development of suitable brownfield sites for housing, the focus should be on
vacant and derelict sites and buildings using excess industrial, commercial and
public land.” So why are we allowing development on back gardens?
The
chapter in the Cheltenham Borough Local Plan dealing with the urban green
environment states that “The Council is proud of its parks, gardens and other
green spaces and features and in recognition of this, the Council does not wish
to see their loss through development.” So why are we allowing development on
private gardens?
We
do not support the cramming in of dwellings in every green space that becomes
available. Green spaces are just as important to an area as trees and public
parks. Back gardens are also important biodiversity resources and often contain
habitats for wildlife, which we should always strive to retain.
We
all know of examples where significant private gardens have been lost due to
development and this is likely to happen elsewhere unless we stop this urge to
develop on every open space.
Because
of our concerns, PAB councillors produced a ‘draft’ document in order to get
a cross-party discussion underway with the aim of drawing up a supplementary
planning guidance to manage the supply of windfall development, which includes
front and back garden developments.
The
first meeting has already taken place, which was positive and the next step will
be to involve the Borough Council officers responsible for strategic planning.
Residents
across the town have shown their concern with this growing problem and public
meetings are beginning to take place. We are pleased to report that the PAB
Group are in the vanguard of trying to improve the present situation.
We
know that many local residents use the facilities of
The
purpose of making the bid was to launch a Parks for People programme to restore
the park and estate to its former glory.
Well
done to everyone who has been involved with the project.
This is just to remind our
readers that the Concessionary Travel Scheme will become a national scheme from
April 1st 2008. The full details of the scheme are still to be
published but the principle of allowing the elderly and the disabled to travel
free to any part of the country from April next year is something to look
forward to.
For the people who qualify next year for the first time please make sure you obtain the appropriate form and submit it to the Council offices in good time.
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After
an intensive selection process involving the local community Cheltenham Borough
Council has appointed Bloor Homes to develop this site in a way that will
prevent any significant loss of the existing allotments and provide 161 eco
friendly homes, open green spaces and additional recreational facilities. The
development is subject to a satisfactory solution being found to minimise flood
risk and is generally supported by local residents. Access is planned from Tommy
Taylors Lane and the opportunity will be taken to improve traffic management
in the whole area.
We
are most pleased that significant consultation was undertaken with local
residents and their views actually taken into account, which is a policy the PAB
Group continually advocates.
Local
Ward Councillors will be now be closely monitoring developments as the project
proceeds.
The Cabinet system in local government is not a good
example of how local democracy should work. From
There are some measures and proposals that the Executive may wish to carry out that can only be approved by the full Council.
Therefore, if any one group of political councillors has an overall majority on the Council then there is very little the minority councillors can do to stop ‘bad’ policies and measures from being introduced.
The current make up of Cheltenham Borough Council is 17 Conservatives, 17 Liberal Democrats, 5 PAB and one Labour councillor. This means that PAB councillors are in a pivotal position on the Council to ensure that any policy changes or measures that are proposed are done solely for the benefit of the town and the residents.
To give just a few examples, at the time of the recent
budget process we were invited to meet the Cabinet to discuss issues that
concerned the PAB Group. We pointed out that we would not expect the Cabinet to
be proposing a council tax increase of more than the rate of inflation. We also
made it clear that our support for the arts and culture in
We suggested that the cut in the small grant to the Young Arts Centre should be restored and that the existing grant to The Playhouse should be increased. These suggestions along with others were accepted by the Cabinet and we were willing to support the budget proposals.
On the other side of the coin the Liberal Democrats
proposed a resolution last October at a full Council meeting that “Cheltenham
Borough Council supports and endorses the retention of the
Notwithstanding the importance of the Airport and the part
it plays in the economic future of Gloucestershire, PAB are also mindful of the
importance of the green belt land between
We were pleased to support the Liberal Democrats with their
resolution but at the same time saddened to see the Conservative Group vote
against it.
These are just a few examples; but there are many others, nevertheless, we believe that the message has got across to the political groups that PAB will only support those measures that clearly are beneficial to the town and the people.
That is why it pays to be independent.
CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN - PITTVILLE ESTATE
The inaugural A.G.M. of the “Friends of Pittville” took
place on
Councillor Dave Prince and Councillor Diane Hibbert have been working on this
project for the last 3 years and can now see the project taking shape. The
project is not just about bringing improvements to
It will be early 2011 before it is known whether the bid has been successful
but, in the meantime, the ‘Friends Group’ can become involved in a number of
useful projects.
The Constitution for the ‘Friends Group’ was supported by everyone at the
meeting, which was followed by unanimous support for the election of the
officers and committee members.The ‘Friends Group’ is fortunate to have so
many willing volunteers who have such a vast array of knowledge between them and
they have become members of the committee. An important component of this
lottery bid is community involvement and it is one area that the Heritage
Lottery Fund is very keen to see.
The ‘Friends of Pittville Group’ has its own web site, which is
www.friendsofpittville.org and it is well worth a visit. It will be updated
regularly and have all the news and committee meeting minutes on it as well as
other useful information. The PAB Group wishes the ‘Friends Group’ every
success for the future and of course we hope that the lottery bid is a
successful one.
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The
civic pride project was started over four years ago with an exciting
presentation by consultant architects that showed clearly vast improvements to
the town by the regeneration of parts of the existing urban area. The PAB Group
supported this initiative.
Unfortunately,
the project stalled due to a number of reasons. With the Regional Spatial
Strategy proposals the civic pride initiative is back on track with the creation
of an Urban Design Framework, reusing previously developed land and buildings
within the urban area, using high quality design standards. Future development
should be phased to compliment the regeneration of the central area of the town.
The
redevelopment of the
Several
large developments are currently taking place in
PAB are urging the Borough Council to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that developers can demonstrate that they have explored all renewable energy options, and designed their developments accordingly. The same pressure, in our view, should extend to the construction of underground car-parking in all new developments.
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AN INTEGRATED TRANSPORT SCHEME
In recent months there has been considerable coverage of
the proposed Parkway rail station. Rather than comment on what has been said we
thought it would helpful to print some information on the whole scheme, of which
Parkway is just one part.
The Integrated Transport at Elmbridge Court (ITEC) major scheme is vital to address existing and future transportation problems in the county. ITEC will benefit car drivers and public transport users.
The scheme features the following:
•
A new park and ride site attached to the station with 500 parking spaces
(expandable to 1,000 spaces).
•
Improvements to the
•
A new high quality bus service between
•
Bus priority measures.
•
A new train station at
• A 500 space car park for the train station.
The business case outlines the key reasons for promoting
the scheme including:
•
Improved access to
•
Faster, more frequent and more reliable bus services.
•
Reduced congestion on M5/M6 corridor.
•
A projected cut in CO2 emissions of 13,000 tonnes per year – the same
as 7,000 cars would produce.
•
Serving a catchment of 406,000 people – 71% of total population and 75%
of jobs in Gloucestershire.
•
Provision of additional parking facilities that cannot be provided at
existing stations – a benefit to the whole county.
•
Delivery of improved accessibility to the business markets in
Gloucestershire County Council has submitted a bid for
funding from the Department of Transport to fund the non-rail elements of the
ITEC scheme. The County Council is currently opening discussions with a number
of potential private sector partners to construct and operate the railway
station without the need for any public money.
Readers will have their own views, but these are the main points.
These
are exciting times and the PAB Group recognise the importance of these main issues if Cheltenham is to improve its position as a town of opportunity,
with good design of its buildings and at the same time be aware of the need to
protect the environment.
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