Latest News
21/12/11 - Kempsey Flood Action Group (FLAG) writes to JTP to object to erroneous flooding facts published by Welbeck and JTP in their joint December 2011 newsletter
A copy of the Welbeck/JTP newsletter and of the FLAG responding letter can be found on the SGIRA website: http://www.sgira.co.uk/welbeckjtp-newsletter-dec2011.html
20/12/112 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
19/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
18/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
17/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
16/12/11 - Report back on the Welbeck/JTP South Worcester Forum meeting 14th December.
SGIRA briefly attended this meeting but did not register and did not take part in any of the discussions.
In summary:
- 20 people were present in the room at the event, 1 of whom was a landowner and 6 of whom were consultants from the various JTP/Welbeck associates. It is clear that the message of how these meetings are not part of the formal SWDP consultation has been successfully disseminated to the general public and that they are choosing to stay away from these developer led events.
- Discussions focused in a limited fashion on flooding issues in Kempsey, transport/roads and employment, but no real headway was made due to the severe lack of attendees.
- A member of the public from Norton asked JTP how their Business Consultation with the Chamber of Commerce and local businesses went on 13th December 2011. JTP informed the resident that 40 local businesses attended but that there was a lack of commitment from any of them, since the local traffic issues and congestion have not been properly addresses by the plans within the SWDP. Significantly, local businesses continue to be of the opinion that the ongoing A4440 traffic issues make it difficult for them to support the idea of commercial areas in the proposed South Worcester / Broomhall extension.
As yet there is no confirmation of when the next South Worcester Forum will be.
16/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website ONE MONTH AFTER SUBMISSION
15/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
14/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
13/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
A letter is being drafted to our MP drawing their attention to this fact. A copy of the letter will be available here shortly.
13/12/11 - Norton Parish Council publish latest flyer alerting residents to the Welbeck South Worcester Forum meetings
12/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
11/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
10/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
09/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
08/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
07/12/11 - Comments remain unprocessed and unpublished on the SWDP website.
04/12/11 - Half of SGIRA's comments remain unpublished on the SWDP website.
After speaking with other members of the public, it is clear that many other comments also remain unprocessed and unpublished and therefore do not contribute towards public debate regarding this local plan. So much for the fair and open processes of this consultation.
01/12/11 - SWDP Consultation website still showing that many submitted comments have yet to be processed and published
The SWDP consultation team still has not processed and published all comments provided by members of the public via the SWDP website. Half of SGIRA's comments have also NOT been processed or published on the SWDP website, even though they were submitted well before the consultation deadline.
25/11/11 - SGIRA's letter published in the Worcester News
For further details of this, see our report 20/11/11 below. SGIRA's letter in the Worcester News can also be accessed by clicking on the link below:
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/letters/read/9384195.How_can_we_have_faith_in_this_process_/
24/11/11 - SGIRA comments begin to be published on the SWDP Consultation Website
For a full list of the SWDP sections that SGIRA has commented upon, please see below:
22/11/11 - Latest issues with the SWDP Consultation Portal (the offical SWDP online response website)
SGIRA has formally complained that comments uploaded to the SWDP Consultation Portal, including SGIRA's response and those submitted by Kempsey Parish Council since 15th November have not yet been published. The following has been received from Malvern Hills District Council in response to our complaint:
"You may appreciate that we are receiving thousands of responses to the SWDP, and a large amount of staff time has been taken up in the last 8 weeks with attending the 38 consultation events, rather than the administration of responses. The fact that your comments have not yet appeared as viewable online is therefore nothing to worry about. We need to check all submissions for acceptable language and that they do not result in racist of other unacceptable personal comments, so we always err on the cautious side when processing responses. Rest assured that your comments will be processed in due course, but this is time consuming."
SGIRA suggests that the process of checking a response for racist language does not take quite as long as is being suggested by the local authorities and that it is clear that insufficient resources have been set aside to approve online submissions once they have been made. It is completely unacceptable that public comments submitted before the deadline have not yet been formally accepted or published on the SWDP Consultation Portal. The fact that recent submissions cannot be viewed via the online portal is resulting in a very skewed impression of the number of responses that have been received regarding the SWDP in general and in relation to specific sections of the draft plan. One major objective of the online SWDP Consultation portal was that comments from members of the public published online would generate further interest and comments themselves - thereby increasing the level of debate and interest. Since most recent comments have not yet been published, (including those submitted by organisations that have taken the full allotted time to consider their response - most parish councils therefore) this process of debate has not been allowed to take place and has significantly reduced the usefulness of the entire SWDP consultation process.
20/11/11 - Malvern Hills District Council colluding with Welbeck before the SWDP consultation period is over
It has come to SGIRA's attention that Malvern Hills District Council and the Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce are working together with Welbeck housing developers in order to finalise local plans for the industrial units as part of the SWDP BEFORE the consultation has ended. SGIRA has written to the Worcester News to publicise this fact. The Malvern Hills District Council newsletter advertising the Welbeck event can be accessed via the link below:
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f290cf5c078dd36bd3c2781b6&id=390b9ba992
SGIRA's letter to The Editor of the Worcester News is as follows:
Dear Sir,
I would like to draw local residents attention to the fact that Malvern Hills District Council appear to be colluding with housing developers Welbeck in order to formalise the South Worcestershire Development Plan before the public consultation period has even finished. This is in spite of the fact that I have received assurance that this draft local plan is not set in stone. The SWDP in its current format with no funding for infrastructure will be highly detrimental to local residents lives, existing businesses and the local economy in general. Yet Malvern Hills are nonetheless ploughing forward in advertising for businesses to come forward to apply to fill the industrial units at the proposed Broomhall site to the south of Worcester. This is extremely concerning in light of the fact that Malvern Hills District Council have previously advices local residents not to attend Welbeck's Open Forums and yet now appear to be working behind the scenes with this developer and advertising on their behalf, before even reading public comments arising from the consultation. How are individuals to have faith in the consultation process if this the sort of behaviour demonstrated by those that we have elected to represent us?
The above letter from SGIRA was published on the Worcester News website on 24th November 2011 and can be downloaded from their website via the following link:
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/letters/read/9384195.How_can_we_have_faith_in_this_process_/
19/11/11 - Deadline for public responses to the SWDP extended to 25th November 2011, 5pm
The following notice has been published on the SWDP website:
16/11/11 - SGIRA's final response to the SWDP is available for downloading below:
(250kb)
To view the appendices to the SGIRA response please click on the link below to go to the correct webpage : http://www.sgira.co.uk/draft-response.html
15/11/11 - Kempsey Parish Council submits a formal response to the SWDP
Download the final Kempsey Parish Council response here:
(250kb)
The document that were submitted by Kempsey Parish Council as appendices to their response can be found here on the SGIRA response webpage (click on the following link): http://www.sgira.co.uk/draft-response.html
09/11/2011 - Survey results published in DRAFT
