Sunday, January 28, 2007

Back garden developments....

Back in July the Council passed this motion:

AT A MEETING OF THE BOROUGH OF BOURNEMOUTH COUNCIL, 25 JULY 2006

c. Residential Development in Bournemouth

Councillor Garratt moved and Councillor Brandwood seconded:

‘That the Council recognises the deep concerns of many residents about the impact on the character of residential areas that redevelopment of house sites as flats may have. The Council further recognises the concerns arising from the loss of back gardens to housing development.

The Council also recognises the similarly deep concerns of many residents that the high cost of housing to buy and rent locally could mean that as their children grow up they will have to move away from Bournemouth in order to afford somewhere to live.

In order to address issues of the loss of character the Council resolves, as part of the preparation of its Local Development Framework, to consider the development of Character Assessment policies.

In order to address the issue of the loss of back gardens the Council resolves to:

1. support calls for garden land to be reclassified as green field land;
2. welcome the commitment of Bournemouth’s MPs towards securing this;
3. express its support for the specific provision within the Local Government and Planning (Parkland and Windfall Development) Bill sponsored by Lorely Burt MP, which would require the Secretary of State to issue guidance to local planning authorities to the effect that ‘the gardens of private houses should be regarded for development control purposes as green field sites.’

In order to address the need, in particular, of local people growing up in Bournemouth to be able to afford a place to live, the Council resolves to confirm that affordable housing both to buy and rent is one of its top priorities.’

The motion was carried, 34 in favour, 6 against, 3 abstentions.


Simply enough, no?


Then why is there an advert in the latest edition of the Council's magazine, delivered monthly to you all, for a company offering to buy up back gardens in order to develop them?


Why has the Council not vetoed advertisers who specifically advertise services to which we are opposed?


You may be aware that my own business advertises in BH Life, we have been told that there are waiting lists for advertisers in the magazine throughout the Spring as only a certain number of adverts are accepted. The excuse that accepting adverts keeps the cost down and they have to take adverts from whichever source they can therefore doesn't pass muster.


We should be practicing what we preach and ensuring that adverts of this type are not allowed in Council publications.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too much development in the Bournemouth Area.I cannot see what our local MP,Tobias Ellwood is doing except claiming more expenses than Tony Blair.This is the figures for 05/06

Tobias Ellwood-£115.000
Tony Blair-£85,000

Nick King said...

....And this has what to do with the issue of back garden development?

By the way, Tobias pays for his entire office staff and travel from his expenses. Something I think you'll find are ommitted from Mr T Blair's. It's not a straightforward comparison.

Anonymous said...

I think the previous writer is saying is he or she feels that Mr Ellwood has put himself on a pedestal,all with good intentions.Rememeber as councillors and MP's they work for us.
As we elected you we to as constituents can kick you out.And it does seem that one thing with political careers is that it all ends in tears

Nick King said...

I think it was Enoch Powell who said something like 'all political careers end in failure'.

I have no doubt that's the case, or at least they end in disappointment. Whether that is a matter of inevitable failure to get exactly what you want or, more likely, indicative of the inability of the politician to reach the goals their ego tells them they should attain is a different matter.

I have no doubt whatsoever that my political career will end in just this way.

I apologise if the reaction to the first post was a bit harsh. However, the comment is unfair. There is no one more committed to fighting development than Tobias Ellwood, he's been consistent in doing so, collecting petition signatures and raising the issue within Parliament and with the Council at every opportunity.

Anonymous said...

Seems like the Lib-Dems have tapped in to this blog.But fair play to highlighting it.Back to the subject.I am not against back garden developement in any shape or form.When i lived in Didcot i was offered a substantial amount by a developer in which i accepted.This gave me a life of comfort and stability and there fore at the age of 52 years i retired a moved to Bournemouth.

Anonymous said...

I live in Iford and i am considering selling off my back garden for developement for Flats.My Garden is an asset and i feel that if sold will give me more of an economic stability in later years.Some people will say that selfish but if you have an asset that you could sell, you be doing the same