Let me say before I start I'm opposed to any development in Rutland until the future plans for the site at what will soon be the ex RAF base at Cottesmore are known. It seems inconceivable that plans drawn up when there was a RAF base in the area was bringing in millions of pounds into the local economy can conceivably be relevant now without that income and the jobs that money generated. This situation is made worse by the potential loss of another employer in the area namely the prison at Ashwell whose future is far from certain with the Governments cuts in the Justice budgets. This is without thinking about how it will affect the countryside and the local communities that such developments will affect. Things like this don't just affect us now but impacts on future generations.
There are plans in place to develop a thousand homes in the North Oakham. These plans will increase the population of Oakham by about three thousand people assuming four people to every new home built. It doesn't sound like many people until you consider that the current population of Oakham is in the region of ten thousand people. That is a population increase of thirty percent. Now just in terms of employment there will be a requirement for the creation of around one and a half thousand jobs just when one of the biggest employers in the area is about to be closed down and the unemployment that closure will create. Also as far as I can tell there is no provision in the plan to create the industrial area's for these people to work in locally. So these people will either have to travel out of the county to work with ecological impact that will cause or there will have to be more erosion of the countryside around Oakham to provide the industrial site for these people to work in. This doesn't seem to have been considered in any depth. In fact the whole plan seems flawed in the current economic climate.
Still these plans march on and seem unstoppable. The economic climate when these plans were created has moved on. We are not the country we once were the banks and the greedy that were out to make a quick pound have seen to that, but still Rutland County Council seem to live in a dream world. One of them suggested that the RAF base at Cottesmore could become a regional airport in a county of thirty five thousand people with two large international airports within easy reach. Rutland isn't a massive county and Oakham is no national center of business. Rutland is a rural country full of villages and a couple of towns. Who would realistically use the airport? The answer is nobody for there isn't the demand in the area. So this is thinking we are having to deal with. People with big idea's and little concept of the reality of what Rutland really is and what it's people want. We are happy with the RAF base and it's occasional flights of Harriers, in fact most people are proud to have the base here but most people on the flight path would say no to an airport that is not needed. It is as pointless as the plan to develop so many houses at this time.
Just looking at what happens if the base at RAF Cottesmore is sold off tells us that. On the base there is existing housing in good condition. I know that because I have visited the base. These houses could be reused and deployed as housing association homes or sold off as private homes. The base itself could be redeveloped as a brown land site for more housing and light industrial use in keeping with the nature of Rutland. This would safe guard the local community at Cottesmore and the shops and services in the village as they are now. This hasn't been considered since these plans were put in place before the closing of the base was announced. In my view in light of the closure of the base the whole plan need to be put on hold until we know what is going on. Building new houses in Oakham won't help Cottesmore but utilising the existing house from at the base would keep that local economy alive with out spoiling the village.
Basically the whole plan was based in time when banks were throwing money at home owners and that isn't the case any more. Yes, we might need more houses in the county as a whole but we have to think more carefully now as to where they are built and what large numbers of people arriving into an area will do to the community as a whole. Especially when that area is just about to lose one of it's major employers. The whole thing seems a recipe for disaster. I can see area's that can be developed in Oakham but not to the scale that is planned and the same can be said of Uppingham. Economically, environmentally and socially the effects of the development haven't been well thought out for the good of the Rutland.
If we look into the history of the development there is a clear link between the developers and the council. We just have to look at the opening of the ring road in 2007 to see that Paul Bywater, a director of developer Hawksmead and councillor Roger Begy, leader of Rutland County Council seem to have a common interest. Paul Bywater at the time said: “This new road helps to provide access to a large area of land for potential development which could provide much-needed homes and employment for Oakham.", while Councillor Roger Begy said "Hawksmead has been able, as part of their planning permission, to link the bypass to the town on this side of the railway allowing it to route traffic for the businesses away from the town centre." It was clear then why Hawksmead wanted to build the road to further their own ambitions and I'm sure that the leader of the county council knew of this at the time. Hawksmead were buying the councils favour. The thing is, all the reasons for building a bypass will be lost when it just becomes another route through a larger town. The council probably feels that they owe the company something for the bypass but the truth is repaying that debt will cost the people of Rutland dearly. Just like baling out the Banks has cost us public services that those in greatest need depend on. Councilors are politicians must remember that they are there for the good of the people and not for the good business that want to ruin the place we live in by creating a concert jungle with out thought for the wider community. Business are are in it for profit and the people that make planning decisions must think closely about the more wider picture in realistic terms. It is the people of Rutland and there children that will pay if proper thought hasn't gone into this project.
So looking away form Hawksmead and the County Council how will it affect the people of Oakham and the surrounding area's. According to one of the Doctors at the Oakham Medical Practice said can’t cope now and if we can’t cope now then how will we cope with thousands more patients? He has a good point anyone that has tried to park at the Medical practice will know that there isn't any parking and getting appointments can take ages as it is. More people would just make things worse. The developers have said that they will give them the fabric of a building but still leaves the question where are they going to get the money to equip it and the Doctor said practice can't afford to staff it. Another thing is the plan moves the Rutland Agricultural Society Show ground and separates it from the town by a major road. This will force children using the show ground either to cross a busy road have their parents pick them up creating more traffic in the area. Traffic of course is a major concern and the increased road usage will increase the traffic density in both Oakham and the surrounding area. Unlike a major towns Oakham doesn't have the public transport infrastructure to support such a development. For starters the bus station in the town is already fully utilised so where will the new buses park. Then there is the question of employment. In an area already staved of jobs where will the people people work especially given one of the major employers will be no more by the time the project has finished. The only place I can see them working is outside the county which just add to the peak traffic in the area and to the pollution.
Clearly Hawksmead are trying to buy people over to there plan. For example they have said they will provide money to help with schooling and healthcare costs, but I have seen no figures quoted and in these days of recession question is for how long for and will it be enough. I don't think the money will that they will offer will pay for all that is need to support the influx of people. It will soon fall to the people of Rutland to make up the short full sooner rather than later and in these times of council cuts that will be a disaster. The people that will suffer will be those in greatest need in the county such as the old and the mentally ill that depend on social services. They talk about providing money for traffic calming, but the question is why do you need traffic calming in a mainly rural area with light usage roads unless you think traffic levels are going to increase significantly. It is clear that the there know the impact of the housing development will bring to road network if there are offering such measures.
I agree with Langham Parish council that the plans are being rushed through before the local development framework, a document which will determine how many houses are needed in Rutland, is approved. What makes this worse is everyone is thinking that the plans are already approved with Sainsbury's is wanting to build a new supermarket in the area which recently won the approval of Oakham town council, Tesco's has planning enlarging it's store and has just got the go ahead to do so from the council and Marstons, a pub chain has an licensing application in to open a pub within the area of the new development. What I loved about one of the reasons why the councillors liked the idea of Sainsbury's coming to Oakham was based on the idea that it provide of competition to Tesco's in Oakham. The thing is Tesco's already have competition to Tesco's in the form of the Co Op and it hardly comparing like with like. Sainsbury's are a high end supermarket while Tesco's service the other end of the market. If anything the competition will be between Sainsbury's and the Co Op and if anything I can see the Co Op closing down which will be a great loss given their high animal welfare ambitions and there promotion of fair trade products.
One of the reasons I read for the development came from Counciler King who said “We are under pressure from areas such as Corby and Peterborough to provide housing for people commuting there”. Well maybe the people of Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire should provide housing for there own people and not rely on the people of Rutland to provide them with housing. We don't need people commuting backwards and forwards and creating more traffic and pollution and spoiling the countryside by overdeveloping Oakham in such a small space of time. As for his claim "young people want to stay here but there isn’t the affordable housing available to them" that might be the case but it doesn't have to be achieved by such large scale developments. There are other small developments and area's that can be developed without ruining the nature of Rutland. There is no need for such a rush. Just because there is pressure from outside the county doesn't mean we have to melt and give in. Our children and our children's children won't thank us for it.
Finally as a footnote Oakham Town Council thankfully did the right thing in turning down the current application of Stamford Homes Vale of Catmose College Stamford Homes to build a high density low cost housing on the site of the old Vale of Catmose College in fear of it becoming a ghetto. It is the denisty that is the problem with this plan not the idea of it. I fear the same thing could happen to the Hawksmead Park housing area if it is allowed to continue, however I don't see that being turned down and if it is then Rutland County Council will still bulldoze the plans through. This is clear from the same council meeting where plans to build a new road by Hawksmead Limited could not be discussed since they Rutland County Council had approved them before the Oakham Town council meeting.
No councillor or MP in Rutland will get my vote that supports this development and I urge everyone one of you that lives here to make sure your councillor or Rutland's MP knows this. If there think they can increase the population of a beautiful town by so many souls in such a small amount of time let them fall on their swords. The plan is an eco time bomb that will ruin one of the most beautiful area in the country and those that support it , especially in its current form, will be leaving to future generations an concert mess that is a blot on a once beautiful landscape.
Further Reading:
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment