My comments on the section 'Tendring District Council's Nominated Building Sites' in the newsletter.
I am still dissapointed with what our elected Lib Dems are doing on this matter:
a) The newsletter does not make clear what is actually happening at the moment - Tendring and Colchester Councils are liasing to determine whether building in the 'Colchester Fringe' area - their name for this area - should be put forward as part of their new local plans.
b) The term 'Salary Brook Valley' has not been defined properly, and does not cover all the areas where Tendring Council may want to develop, as discussed in my earlier blog post about the previous Lib Dem newsletter. The term does not appear in any of the council documents. The 'valley' does not form the boundary between Colchester and Tendring as stated in the newsletter, by any means - a large part of the valley is entirely within Colchester borough, the part to the South-East of Greenstead, and East of part of St. Anne's ward.
If we are just talking about 'the line of the boundary area', as stated in the newsletter, could that be a very small area?
c) I think it is wrong to state that by identifying areas for possible development, it makes them less likely to be the subject of speculative development! It is the absence of a local plan for Tendring in general that makes any area subject to possible speculative development. Once specific areas have been specified in the local plan, then other areas are less subject to speculative development.
d) The newsletter would have been an ideal place to directly mention the upcoming public consultations by Tendring and Colchester Councils, possibly late in 2014 / early 2015, but they are not mentioned in the newsletter.
e) The Lib Dems have come in to this matter very late - I didn't receive any information on this subject from them before the public consultation by Tendring Council in Januray/February 2014 - hence I sent postcards to inform people.
Frankly, I think one of the other political parties might have served us better!
Regards
James
Colchester East Action Group (CHEAG)
Blog: http://cheag.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colchestereastactiongroup
