26th October 2007

John Marjoram attended a press conference on Monday regarding Hunts Grove being called in by David Drew - he described it as "a treacherous thing to do". Read his statements and letter to press.

Background from The Citizen: Green fields around Stroud could be at risk of development if a proposal to build 1,700 homes at Hunts Grove is rejected.The application, submitted by developer Crest, will go to a public inquiry after Stroud MP David Drew and Gloucester MP Parmjit Dhanda requested for it to becalled in.But Stroud District Council members say they should be able to make the decision. They say it's a blow to local democracy, will cost local taxpayers hundredsof thousands of pounds, and will throw open green fields for development.

Letter to press from Cllr Marjoram (see also previous letters and news releases on this topic):

Now that the election fever has subsided and David Drew’s marginal seat has been protected for a year or so perhaps he can return to a more measured approach to articles in the Citizen column than the one we read in last week about Hunts Grove. I appreciate it must be a continuingly difficult for him to have to defend the closures and privatisation of local Hospitals and post offices when it is his government who put the legislation into place to start with!  However the audacity by him and Parmit Dhanda to call in the Hunts Grove allocated site for 1750 houses was both irresponsible and a direct interference in local democracy. No wonder he is getting personal verbal attacks, that he complains about for I cannot recollect such anger by his interference in the planning process and I speak as a Councillor of  20 years standing.

The Stroud local plan was eventually approved unanimously in 2005 after five years of debate and one year before a Government Inspector, it was approved by all political parties including  his own party group. The Plan was passed by the Government Inspector, excepted by the County Council and went through  the South West Spatial Strategy for sustainability process. During the one year scrutiny of the plan, David had ample time to present a case to the inspector. Historically the then Labour administration proposed that these 1750 or so houses be put into the Painswick Valley but the road infrastructure incapable of carring this amount of traffic. Added to this of course the Valley land is mostly in the Area Of Outstanding Beauty.

The Hunts Grove proposal was sustainable insofar as there was a proposal to put in a light Railway into Gloucester itself from the site. Needless to say that eventually there was no government funding to help this project. However an effective bus service is being brought into play with these proposals for already the first stage of the scheme has been approved.

Stroud District Council had a difficult job in formulating the original scheme, being restricted by the Severn Flood Pain and the AONB. If my chance this new inspector rules that the scheme is not sustainable then basically the District Council will have to go back to the drawing board and start all over again finding room for thye re-allocation of 1750 houses . During that period the developers will have a field day, as we will have no policy to defend any site in the district.
Quite a high cost to pay, for a few hundred votes in Hardwick and Quedgeley I would have thought Mr Drew?

The only good news is that now the inquiry will happen prior to a General Election even though it is going to cost the District Council an estimated £100,000. This was nothing more than electoral engineering and you know it David, which I am sure will come back to haunt you in your political future.

John Marjoram. Stroud District Councillor