Hockley Residents Association held an interesting meeting tonight to discuss the proposal for a bike park.
Tracy Bateman, a Hockley resident herself and one of the people behind the idea, gave a presentation and answered questions. The audience were mostly hostile to the proposal, though some would support a scheme in a different location.
Main concerns were :
About 50 people were present. There was only one person under 20, and he was very much in favour.
Although most of the audience were very much against having a bike park in the proposed location, they gave Mrs Bateman some credit for consulting the public even before a planning application has gone in.
Just to make it clear – there’s no planning application yet, but District Councillors (Chris B, Ron, Chris L, June and Jackie will be keeping an open mind as we have to do..
I’m very disappointed in the position taken by Focus and the local Lib-Dems on this item.
Someone has plans to bring a new facility into the area over a large area. This opens opportunities for employment, new opportunities for the youth (and not so young) in the area and could prevent less desirable plans (prisons, social housing, care homes etc).
So what is the communication – “we’re worried about PA systems making a noise”. The post above also suggests motorcyclists (inferred as undesirables) breaking in and the perennial favourite of increase in traffic. I read this (as may others, and maybe incorrectly) that you are saying “we don’t want this and want reasons to oppose it”.
The bottom line is that there is potentially a great opportunity to engage with investors to ensure that anything built is of maximum benefit to the community, working with them not only to address potential issues but also to provide assistance (and dare I say funding) to produce an extremely valuable asset to the community.
I would very much appreciate seeing our council members being agents for development within the community, leaving their mark, rather than being the blockers of anything new.
Richard, thanks for writing.
The comment I made above on July 15th – “District Councillors… will be keeping an open mind as we have to do..” isn’t just there as some kind of a get-out clause. It means what it says. Especially as we haven’t seen any application yet!
Probably the most difficult applications we have to deal with as councillors are those where someone is proposing a leisure facility that is potentially valuable to the district, but could potentially cause long-term problems for those nearby. Those are the kind of applications that can give you sleepless nights….
Good recent examples are the sports pitches in Old London Road and the roller skating in Purdeys Way (incidentally in both of those cases Ron Oatham and I voted differently, we really don’t make out minds up beforehand).
I agree with your comment about working with potential applicants to address issues, sometiems that’s not possible but in this case Mrs Bateman is clearly trying hard to engage with the local community.
When you mention that social housing is undesirable – I assume you mean in that location? I’d agree with not building on that area but social housing IS needed in the right locations.
Mr Fuller – would you take this stance if the bike park was going at the end of your road or garden….