Advice on how to object to a housing development

Altarf

If she has mentioned to you that she thinks the area needs housing, that will either be because she is representing the genuine views of other constituents* or because that it is her personal belief. Unfortunately there are too many councillors who are elected because of the party that they represent, never have to take into account local views, and can just push their own (often warped) agenda.

Anyway, since she has already mentioned it to you, I would suggest that she is politely telling you that she won't be supporting you, without actually saying "no". They don't like to say no, because they still want you to vote for them.

*Is there a shortage of housing of the type that they want to build in the area?

spmc

LTA wrote: »

Looks like there may be a traffic report. Each one costs £50, do they still charge under FOI?! Sure I can raise that between a few people but I suppose I expected it to be free or at an admin charge.

We have a local councillor on the case but I personally am a bit concerned that the councillor concerned keeps telling us how much the area needs housing. This worries me as she is supposed to be speaking on behalf of opposing a housing development. We shall see!

I would wait until an application is submitted and review any Transport Assessment (TA) that is submitted before acquiring the traffic data. The data may well be included in the TA anyway. If you get the data upfront I doubt it will be a lot of use upfront of seeing the development proposals. Most local authorities publish all application documents online - what is your local planning authority?

LTA

Ok thanks for that, I'll wait and see if we can view it at that time then. Sounds like a good idea.

I don't know the councillor does seem quite willing to help and seems to be quite active. I am just concerned at her own personal belief but we shall see!

LTA

Don't suppose anyone knows how or if you can access patient numbers per doctor for your local practice? It seems very possible that this service is overstretched so it would be good to prove it would put extra strain on this.

ukmaggie45

LTA wrote: »

Someone said there was bats in the trees but I've not seen any and I don't know how you'd find out for sure. Would the building company not have looked for things like that?

The building company will most certainly not be looking for that - and if they saw bats they would not mention it.

Bats fly at dusk, so get outside and look as dusk is coming on. One hotel we stayed at some years ago had hundreds pouring out of the roof of their swimming pool. I was happy to see them, but a lot of folks seemed scared.

Not sure how late in the year they fly - they hibernate over the winter.

If you look at The Bat Conservation Trust they say "What are bats doing now:

September

Mating occurs through the autumn and bats can often be seen “swarming” outside the roost. Bats will begin to store up fat to last them through the winter."

So hopefully you might be able to observe them of an evening. Or you could ask the Bat Conservation Trust if they know of roosts in your area? You can buy electronic gizmos (bit expensive though) that can say which kind of bat they are, and change their high pitched sound to something people can hear - I lost my ability to hear bats soon after age 30 IIRC. If there's anyone near you interested in bats (local Natural History Society or similar) they might be interested in making sure no bats were harmed!

Good luck!

Maggie

ukmaggie45

LTA wrote: »

Don't suppose anyone knows how or if you can access patient numbers per doctor for your local practice? It seems very possible that this service is overstretched so it would be good to prove it would put extra strain on this.

Write your Local Health Authority (or whatever the bleep it's called now - all these things change their names every 2 seconds these days it seems to me and I've totally lost it on all the different acronyms councils etc use! :rolleyes: ).

Hopefully someone who knows more than me will be along in a bit!

Maggie

Edit: or I guess you could approach the GP practise direct? They might not have the capacity to expand. But if they did, they might be keen to have a bigger practise. I really don't know enough about this to be useful, but am posting as I hate to see any more hedgerows being lost.

LTA

Thanks Maggie, I did think of trying that.

By the way there might be some progress on the bats issue too!

dgl1001

LTA wrote: »

Thanks Maggie, I did think of trying that.

By the way there might be some progress on the bats issue too!

LTA - you should understand that developers are obliged to mitigate the impact of their developments, so regardless if there is an increase of traffic, it won;t be a means for refusing the application. I doubt you would understand what the TA says regardless. Why is this development bad anyway?

edgex

dgl1001 wrote: »

LTA - you should understand that developers are obliged to mitigate the impact of their developments, so regardless if there is an increase of traffic, it won;t be a means for refusing the application. I doubt you would understand what the TA says regardless. Why is this development bad anyway?

the whole process isnt just about finding objections
its also about raising as many questions as possible about relevant areas

eg. traffic
if theres 100 houses on the development, & its using a cul-de-sac for access, that has 50 houses, thats a 200% increase in traffic on parts of the road infrastructure, the junction, the road it joins etc
thats only a conservative estimate of 1 car per house. if the new housing is larger, more likely to have families (compared to the cul-de-sac), then the traffic increase could be much more than that, more like 400%

not only are some of the houses now going to have much more traffic going past them (objection), but there will also be much more traffic using the junction (objection), & wearing down the road surface (objection)
it may even be that the existing road surface isnt suitable for that amount of traffic, & so the road would need rebuilding - how much is that going to cost the developer?



the houses that would back onto the development, they may end up with increased noise pollution




at the end of it all, the overall development may go ahead, but the local residents could have the plans adapted so that it dosnt cause unneccesary disruption

spmc

just picking up on a few things above. I've worked with many national housebuilders for many years and never come across a case of one trying to hide the fact that such things as bats exist. Normally they will employ professional ecologists who will undertake surveys to establish the existance of protected species. There may be arguments about suitable mitigation but not in my experience the existence.

Planning applications are often refused on traffic grounds and also upheld at appeal. That's not to say there is a valid transport reason for objecting in this instance.

It's easier said than done but in my experience the most successful objections are the ones where local residents are able to avoid becoming emotionally involved and look objectively at a development. Objections need to be related to planning policies rather than simply a desire to stop a development. It is also worth considering whether there are amendments to an application that would make a development more bearable, with an all out campaign to seek to thwart a development with little policy basis you may lose the opportunity to negotiate some modifications.

There is little if any difference in the road construction required for a development of 20 houses or 500 houses.