Dear Editor, We have now had time to come to terms with the implications of the updated B&NES Local Plan. I am assuming that many of you have seen the jolly little piece of propaganda put out by B&NES proclaiming ‘Hi! Welcome to the Local Plan’, as if it’s someone greeting you at a social function or a posh hotel. Of course, written rather ominously in small print at the bottom, is their ludicrous tag line ‘Improving People’s Lives’!
On digesting the contents of said leaflet and being privy to the extent of what is being proposed, I struggle to see how any of this is ‘Improving My Life’. People who choose to live in Saltford do so because of what it is, a village surrounded by glorious countryside; countryside which happens to be designated Greenbelt; made so for a very specific reason – to prevent urban sprawl.We now see our Local Authority intent on removing tracts of land between Keynsham and Saltford from the greenbelt willy nilly in order to comply with ‘Government housing quotas’. In other words – “nothing to do with us Guv…”
Keynsham too has seen more than its fair share of development over the last decade or so – scant regard being given to transport infrastructure, with the unspoken reliance on the private car being obvious.
Which brings me back to the aforementioned leaflet. On opening it up, we are presented with a map of the area. I like maps, I will spend hours studying old OS maps from the 1950’s. I have studied this map several times and find it difficult to decipher. It needs to be much larger and lacks clarity, the legend is overly complex and difficult to understand. The cynic in me says this is by design to be ambiguous and misleading for the public. The only clear message gleaned from this information sheet is that Saltford could be looking at 1650 houses – all built on our precious greenbelt!
I’m sure the majority of you are as horrified as I am by this prospect. Saltford is not a centre of employment, so the presumption is each property will have at least one car, if not two, travelling to and from work – potentially an extra 3000 cars using the already at capacity A4!
It is clear that B&NES policy has been to use prime development land in Bath to provide mass student accommodation and push housing quotas out into NE Somerset. They hide behind World Heritage Status in order to achieve this. What is stopping Bath centric Lib Dem Cabinet members and Councillors influencing where these houses go in the upcoming plan – a plan that is so detrimental to the NE Somerset Lib Dem elected representatives? There is a clear conflict of interest here, where do loyalties lie, with the Party or the communities they are claiming to represent?
How many Lib Dem leaflets have been pushed through our doors where they claim to be ‘Protecting our Villages’?
Over the years Saltford has seen several developments that are clearly bad for us. Hygge Park, the current CURO development, the Regional tip at Pixash Lane that now condems us to having the whole of B&NES rubbish pass through our village, plus a potential additional supermarket – all dumping thousands of extra vehicles onto the A4. There is a very real risk of us being stuck in Saltford, gridlocked – unable to get in or out. Yet the spin put on all this, including the latest Local Plan Consultation is all positive! This leaflet we are encouraged to read is blatant propoganda – where is the ‘No to all of it” option?
Bath employs thousands working in hospitality, retail or healthcare/NHS. A significant number live outside of the city, due to the lack of appropriately priced housing, and have to commute into Bath. Students are a transient population who are present for around 9 months of the year, leaving precious living space empty which is incredibly wasteful. This is spectacularly poor planning and leads to severe traffic and parking issues that Liberal Democrats think they can solve by making it almost impossible for us to drive into Bath and park. The private car cannot be simply wished away.
People like using their cars. They are convenient, weatherproof and safe. Not everyone can or wants to use public transport as it can be unreliable and expensive. Attempting to force people onto public transport is both pointless, an infringement of people’s liberties and undemocratic.
Like many of you I am absolutely sick of seeing our area being utterly ruined by insane ‘planning’ decisions. It seems clear to me that development is completely random, and all the hot air and spin put out about ’sustainable’ travel – buses, walking, cycling and ‘wheeling’ is not a transport policy at all as 90% of us use our cars.
We are being taken for fools and it has to stop.
Yours,
Chris
Cllr Chris Warren
Independent Councillor, Saltford
Bath and North East Somerset Council
The local plan is open for comments – and for details of the plans visit https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/local-plan
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