A Warning From Cambridgeshire

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This is an example of how developers often get their way.From the Guardian today:

“A company owned by a major Conservative donor is embroiled in an acrimonious battle over its plan to build 1,500 homes in a new town near Cambridge without fulfilling the minimum room sizes wanted by the council.

Gallagher Estates, which is owned by the property developer Tony Gallagher, who is also a member of the Tory party?s Leader?s Group for major donors, is in dispute with local councillors over a development being supported by ?30m of public money.

The developer was originally granted planning permission to build 1,500 homes at Northstowe, eight miles north-west of the university city ? with the council insisting on ?minimum room sizes and minimum gross internal floor areas?. But Gallagher Estates appealed successfully in March to the Planning Inspectorate, part of central government, to have that requirement removed, bypassing the Tory-majority council after officials missed a deadline to address the issue.

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Tim Wotherspoon, South Cambridgeshire district council?s Conservative cabinet member with responsibility for the Northstowe development, said he felt ?very strongly? about the move by Gallagher Estates to eliminate the need for adhering to minimum room sizes and that locals were ?sore about it?.

Officials said they believed that they were in a dialogue with the developers about room sizes, before Gallagher Estates went over their head to the inspectorate.

Commenting on developers seeking to build homes smaller than the recommendations, Wotherspoon said: ?I feel that it is quite appalling that, in the 21st century, we should put up houses where, in some cases, the kitchens aren?t big enough to store fresh vegetables and where you can?t have the whole family sitting down to have a meal together or the children can?t have friends over to sleep over because the bedrooms are too small.?

Full article here.

 

 

About the author, admin

  • Government quota’s, government compliant Council Junta’s, Government Inspectors = the “DONE DEAL” ( with vested interests well served as an aside ).
    I have worked all over the world and seen this in action, not quite as blatant as some places I’ve been but nevertheless the same end result – I for one am not surprised.

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