Update #34 Is this a valid consultation?

It has come to our attention that a large number of local people have not received an invitation from the developers to a crucial consultation event taking place on Thursday 24th September.

This includes some immediate neighbours who will be directly impacted by the proposed development at St Christopher’s. 

We do not knowwhy so many people have been excluded, but we are very concerned that this will affect both the outcome of the public meeting and the results of an opinion poll that developers are carrying out.

Sadly, we therefore have to question the validity of the entire consultation process and any survey results produced.

It should not be left to community groups like SCAN to advertise the developers’ events, but we do urge anyone who is able to attend the public meeting to be there, whether you have received an invitation or not. 

We appreciate this is now very late notice and many people will not be able to attend. This situation is highly regrettable. 

For those who CAN attend, we urge you to look beyond the glossy images on display and ask the project managers - how much have the plans really changed since the last consultation meeting?

For example, the community said very clearly in May that our number one concern was the impact of the development on congestion, road safety and parking. But what have the developers actually done to change their plans and address these concerns?

They’ll tell you they’re not allowed to provide more parking spaces on site under council guidelines -  but what are their ideas for preventing the inevitable overspill and increased traffic? Surely if they further reduced the number of units on site - they would limit the impact on our roads!

They’ll also tell you that the community will benefit from a patch of grass on the site that Westbury Park Primary school can use. Spoiler alert:- the school says the area they’ve been offered is not appropriate or safe. 

So - please go along if you can. And do let us know what you think when you've been and had a chance to see the plans.

Thursday 24th September

2-7.30pm

St Alban's Church

We have one chance to get this right! 

Once it's done... we can't undo it!