I have the unfortunate position of being on the planning committee. I’ve seen the other side of planning committees too many times and even been through and won a large appeal. I thought I was therefore quite well qualified to sit on the other side. As expected, planning policies and council priorities make this as dull but also remove all power from the committee members. When the consulting bodies have no objection and the policy documents give you no room for refusal there is nothing to be done. It feels like the committee is a pointless waste of time and money. Two great examples came up at the last meeting.
- New school for the Boulton Moor development. The new school is required for the new estate of many homes being built on Boulton Moor. The school however is being built on the ‘Green Wedge’ or protected zone and the reason given was economics. Of course the rules allow them to build community facilities on the wedge. If that means they can build more houses than that’s where they are going to build it. Nothing I can do here. The second, and biggest issue in my book, is parking and access. EVERY school in Derby and most other cities has terrible issues with cars and transport. They jam all the local roads and so with a new school on a new estate what would you expect? Well, the new school after much fighting has agreed to open the staff car park for turning during collection and drop off times, and that’s only under duress and because it sits at the end of a cul-de-sac. No pickup or drop off zones, no proper design elements. In fact this problem has been designed out due to developer issues etc and heralded as a great environmental plus because this new school has been proudly presented with NO VEHICLE ACCESS from the estate that it’s been built to serve. Wow. So the corner of the estate that it sits on will jam with traffic from the start. Really lazy parents will drive the 3 mile round trip to the school gates and this will instantly become the worst school traffic zone in the city. The frustrating thing is that on the committee I have ‘no material reason’ to object. What is the point?
- So we also passed the new arena, though I abstained as I would not vote for such a hideous building, location and waste of public money. Buried in the backstreets, far from the bus station, railway and all decent public car parks the new dull looking metal and foam shed will hold 3,500 people, cost the city over £75,000,000 IF successful and comes with not one single car space. The assembly rooms that it is set to replace has a prime location and it’s own multi-storey car park and no plan has been announced for the old building. Again as a member of the planning committee I had no material reason to object to the plan, nothing, yet the whole project is a farce. Disappointment was then voiced as Councillors did not excitingly welcome this ambitious development. Forgive me for not being excited at your stupidity. I can’t get funding for a park bench or get the main roads in my ward repaired to a safe level and you expect me to get excited about this…