Report to Preston Richard Parish Council on the resumed Examination of the SLDC Land Allocation DPD
Glenn Smithers and myself attended the resumed Examinaton on 11th to 13th June. The proceedings were very protracted with much repetition of information from the earlier hearing from the developers and particularly the affected Town and Parish Councils and individuals, when it was intended to cover specific areas such as Infrastructure and Viability. In fact, a number of scheduled discussions were slipped.
In an overall sense, there were few surprises with SLDC maintaining their stated positions on almost all allocations, with exception of some which were withdrawn for reasons of non-availability or some re-consideration. Understandably, most of the time was spent on Grange and Kendal.
We were lucky that the ( somewhat exasperated) Inspector was reminded at about 8..50pm we were still patiently waiting. Glenn presented an edited summary of the Council’s position and managed to repeat many of the old arguments on density and increase in development boundary. Specific comments made were;
- SLDC – Both Housing sites were appropriate in scale, available, suitable and deliverable. A Development Brief would be worked up for the .Sycamore Crescent site. There were no landcape issues.
Studies indicated that speed restriction changes were likely to be necessary and that access improvements would be necessary for the Dovenest Lane/ Enyeat Road Lane junction.
- Storey Homes – On the key question of the Waste Water Treatment facilities Storey Homes referred to the Infrastructure Delivery Plan, Page 38 indicating that and United Utilities were carrying out detailed modeling. Crooklands and LowPark were near capacity and Endmoor in addtion to capacity issues lacked an electrical supply necessary for any new facility. When asked about the status of the proposed construction of a new facility at LowPark, Storeys advised that other options existed and that it was likely that an adaptable package treatment plant would be installed in the Sycamore site. There was no real response to the situation on the other facilities. Overall, United Utilities would be applying for A and P (?) funding from OFWAT.
- Given the time we decided not to press for any discussion on the industrial sites at Gatebeck, as we felt that there were no more new strong arguments that could be put forward.
- As the Examination will not be concluded until this Friday we are not aware when the Inspector’s non- binding recommendations will be published.
As a personal reflection I think that Glenn has played a sterling role in eloquently representing the Parish Council’s case and should be congratulated.
Watch this space!
Peter Watson 17th June 2013