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Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you for your deliberations at
yesterdays planning meeting on the so called ‘COMMUNITY’ sports facility at
Emerson Valley – although how you can still call it that is beyond my
comprehension when, as a “member only” club and bar it will clearly not be for
the community.
I have to say on behalf of EVRAG and the
Emerson Valley Residents who are totally against this facility – we are devastated
by your decision, we cannot understand, after all the arguments raised last
night, that 5 councillors would see fit to vote for it – especially the
councillor (Chris Williams) who is part of the Shenley Brook End parish council – whose arguments
seemed to be totally against the proposal and yet voted in favour. You will be
happy to hear that on leaving the council offices – the rugby supporters were
discussing where they were going to go to have a P***-Up to celebrate… and they
all thought that very funny!. We understand that he felt there were no
planning grounds on which to object, but what more do you need, as one councillor
put it “MK Councils OWN planning policy states that if there is ‘overspill’
from the car park onto estate roads “that” is grounds for an automatic
rejection” – Alan Mills stated that he “could NOT guarantee that there would be
NO overspill” – and yet 5 councillors still voted for the application.
We also feel that the issue of the 30 m
distance from pitch to housing was glossed over – even reducing the length of
the in-goal area of the Rugby pitches that still leaves the Baseball/Softball
pitch within 20m from local housing – this outfield may not be the most active
part of the play area but, nevertheless, it is STILL part of the pitch and as
such likely to be in play and/or be attended by spectators – again a clear
guidance which was ignored.
We have to commend Isabella Fraser for her
level headedness and common sense – we feel here comments were right on the
button.
On the traffic argument and whether to
make the turn from Bowland Drive onto Tattenhoe street a Left Turn only – a question
was raised about what would happen if this were implemented and the cars wanted
to turn right and Alan Mills stated that traffic would simply have to turn left
go to the roundabout and come back on themselves…. Human nature is to take the
easiest route possible – if they cannot turn right at the Bowland
Drive/Tattenhoe street they would simply drive down Winfold Lane, then into
Langerstone Lane and turn left out of that junction opposite the Bowland Drive
junction onto the V2. Or drive down Bowland Drive and Wenning Lane and out onto
the V2 that way i.e. use the estate roads as ‘rat runs’ – both these route are
MUCH shorter than driving all the way down to the roundabout on the V2 and H8.
As for the abstentions – unless someone
has a ‘personal’ involvement on the planning application then abstention should
not be allowed, although Councillor Geary was a few minutes late – he did not
miss anything any part of the application – all he missed of the meeting was
the initial reading of the minutes and councillors stating their interests in
the separate planning applications and corrections of previous minutes. We don’t
know the other lady who abstained – but at the very least they should give full
and frank explanations for their abstension.
It is our understanding that we CANNOT submit
an appeal to this decision – can you please verify in writing that this is
correct – I know it was mentioned at the meeting but the answers were hard to
hear and ambiguous.
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