FRESHFORD BULLETIN - News affecting your parish
May 2006
THE PUBLIC OPEN MEETING
The annual Parish Council Open Meeting will take place at the Memorial Hall on Tuesday 23rd. May, commencing at 8.00pm. Doors will open at 7.30pm. All residents are welcome to attend and there will be opportunity for questions to be put to the Council on its efforts on behalf of our community over the past year.
THE PARISH PLAN
Parish Plans are an initiative aimed at ensuring that the views of parish communities are clearly expressed and understood by government, particularly at local and regional level. They chart formally the preferred future, as expressed by the community, for a parish in the many areas in which government is involved. They are intended to be an ongoing feature of local government and any parish without a Plan will be deprived of an invaluable tool and reference for influencing its future.
Both central and local government wish to see parishes produce their Plans and get these adopted so that the views of the communities can be understood and taken into account in decision making. Your PC obtained a grant from Community Action covering most of the estimated cost of this exercise.
A very useful development for the dissemination of local information and arising from the Plan process is the creation by the committee of a new parish website - www.freshfordvillage.co.uk
The Parish Council are most grateful to the committee of volunteers who are making the Plan process work and to all those who are helping them.
THE VILLAGE SHOP
At a very well attended public meeting at the school on the 4th. April Gitte Dawson and the Post Office/shop committee advised their aims, explained most of the options open to them and asked for commitment from the village. The PC is represented on the committee by Alison Cavaliero who has worked hard for the PC on this subject since the threat to the shop became apparent. It is too early to report on progress but the committee will be keeping residents informed of their progress and the PC will post updates when applicable on the parish notice boards and website. The committee's efforts are greatly appreciated.
FUTURE A36 TRAFFIC
The report of The Greater Bristol Transport Study, including the A36/A46 possible link, is due to be published soon. This Council supports Brave 2 in its efforts to get understanding of the pointlessness of the high cost link proposal and the need to give more weight to alternatives.
AFFORDABLE HOMES
In response to demands by Government and in pursuit of our long established objective, the Parish Council has been assisting the Housing Development Department of BANES to identify possible sites for affordable housing within the parish boundaries. You may recall that over a year ago a questionnaire was circulated which attempted to identify demand for affordable housing in the parish. The results were professionally analysed by Community Action and pointed to a need for six such dwellings, but not necessarily to be built on one site. A sub committee of the PC looked at twenty possible locations which they then put to the BANES planners, the highways officers and also to the local authority's preferred housing association, Western Challenge. Most of these were ruled out by them for a number of reasons which included remoteness. However, a small number are being looked at in greater detail by BANES and Western Challenge - who are in the process of making enquiries of the owners. There can be no compulsory purchase.
Any proposals for affordable homes will be subject to the same Planning process as any other build, although the concept of "Exception sites" for such housing does allow consideration of locations which might otherwise be refused.
Representatives of BANES Housing Development and Western Challenge have been invited to attend the Annual PC Open Meeting on the 23rd. May and will be pleased to respond to questions on the process. When the PC has hard facts to put to the parish they will be published on the notice boards, in the Bulletin and on the website.
FRESHFORD MILL
After much effort by this Council and the Freshford Mill Association committee against inappropriate development and over five years in the Planning process, BANES gave approval to permit 21 dwellings on this site. This was contrary to the advice of their Highways Department and powerful planning arguments presented by the PC and our district councillor. This is, however, a major reduction on all the previous applications, which started with many more residences, major workshop space and commercial offices.
It remains to be seen whether the build of 21 residences can be justified in commercial terms when considered in the light of the very high costs involved in developing this site which remains, in the view of this Council, inappropriate for residential use except possibly on a much smaller scale than that permitted.
PLANNING : THE LOCAL PLAN
The Inquiry Inspector's report on the BANES Local Plan is due out soon. Freshford PC made a number of formal objections and supportive statements and we will advise residents (notice boards and website) whether the Inspector has accepted these.
The PC was supported by residents in its efforts to have the village green land allocated for use by the school moved to a more suitable location on the Tyning. We await the Inspector's report with great interest in respect of this and our other representations.
The Local Plan will affect and help determine most planning decisions over a ten year period and will be absorbed into the new planning system.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Now that the station platform problem has been resolved and the station generally refurbished (And the PC wish to record their appreciation of all the sustained and sterling efforts that have gone into getting the work approved and completed), the need to use the service provided is paramount. If you do not use it you will lose it.
The same point applies to the buses serving this parish.
BONFIRES
The bonfire season is with us. Please consider the interests of your neighbours before lighting bonfires. Where possible please compost garden waste or use the local authority's compost and cardboard collection service. Thoughtfulness will avoid complaint and bad feeling.
VANDALISM
There has been an outburst of vandalism at the newly refurbished railway station and on the village green (The Tyning). Please keep a look out for any further criminal behaviour of this nature and report incidents immediately to the police.