Tracey,

 

Further to our conversation today, I write to confirm the following points and requests made by local residents.

 

A meeting was held at Worplesdon Memorial Hall yesterday (16^th January 2008) to discuss the Site Allocations Issues and Options paper – especially with regard to Park & Ride.

 

There were 131 people signed in to the meeting.

 

Much was discussed however by a unanimous show of hands (100% of 127) with no shows to the contrary, the meeting called for

1)       The consultation about sites including major residential developments should be with the whole of Worplesdon Parish and not omit major areas such as the 537 houses in Fairlands and many other areas: We request that the Site Allocations document should be sent to ALL residents of Worplesdon.

2)       The consultation period should be extended

a.       To allow these additional people time to respond

b.       To take account of the fact that those people that have received it, only did so in mid December (well after the start of the consultation period) due to Christmas post or late posting

c.       To take account of the fact that the consultation period included the very busy Christmas period

 

I call for the council to respond positively to these requests to demonstrate that the spirit of engagement with the community is being observed.

 

I would also suggest that 1500 further copies of the Site Allocations papers are brought to the Drop In meeting in Worplesdon Memorial Hall on Monday. I will pass these on to the heads of local residents associations to distribute however I would note that this is a poor substitute for direct distribution by GBC.

 

I would appreciate a response to this email so that I may report back to other local residents and interested parties.