The District Council has an interesting meeting on Thursday – discussing a planning application for 330 houses in Hawkwell:
09/00529/OUT
OUTLINE APPLICATION TO PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF UP TO 330 DWELLINGS, ASSOCIATED
INFRASTRUCTURE, NEW VEHICULAR ACCESSES ONTO RECTORY ROAD, NEW ON SITE ACCESSES AND ROAD
NETWORK; CYCLEWAY AND FOOTPATH NETWORK, PUBLIC OPEN SPACE, LANDSCAPING, HEALTH
FACILITIES, AND LOCAL AMENITIES.
AT LAND BETWEEN MAIN ROAD, RECTORY ROAD AND CLEMENTS HALL WAY, HAWKWELL
APPLICANT : DAVID WILSON HOMES
ZONING : METROPOLITAN GREEN BELT
The officers report is massive -66 pages and 7 megabytes – and you can download it here.
Officers are proposing refusal – this site is not included in the coucnil’s list of new sites for housing, and the council wants to keep it as Green belt.
Hawkwell Councillor John Mason opposed this location becoming one of those sites for housing and he has been able to get a clear statement from officers today saying that he can still vote on this application on Thursday – this ruling is useful for councillors in places like West Rayleigh and Rawreth.
It’s on his website here and says:
Dear Councillor Mason
To confirm our discussion and my advice to you which John Honey as Monitoring Officer has affirmed, there is a clear distinction between Council Members? participation in the Core Strategy deliberations and the consideration of a subsequent planning application. The key issue for the purposes of the code of conduct is that you keep an open mind in respect of the planning application and do not made public statements on those proposals, in advance of the formal consideration, that gives the appearance that you have already made up your mind on that matter. In the circumstances I do not consider you would be precluded from participating in the determination of the planning application .
Kind Regards
Albert Bugeja
Head of Legal Services
Rochford District Council
and Deputy Monitoring Officer
The David Wilson Homes Planning Application was Refused Permission on 3 December 2009, by the unanimous recorded vote of District Councillors present at the Development Control Committee. Councillor Chris Black seconded the motion for refusal.
A just result for the individual residents who made written representations to Rochford District Council and to the organisations which ran campaigns of objection, namely The Hawkwell Action Group (HAG) and The Hawkwell Residents Association.