A GROUP protesting against plans for 2,350 homes in Cirencester has criticised the district council over its handling of a public consultation period, while also taking issue with a county council highways report.
A resident of Chesterton, where the homes would be built, informed Save Our Cirencester (SOC) that a notice had been put up on Cranhams Lane regarding a consultation, with comments due by June 22.
The consultation is due to new details being received by the council regarding the Environmental Statement, and has been pinned to a lamppost.
On behalf of SOC, member Patrick Moylan slammed Cotswold District Council (CDC) for “yet another occurrence” of “inadequate consultation on the Local Plan and Chesterton outline planning application”.
Plans for the proposed estate have been developed to coincide with CDC’s Local Plan as a strategic site to take much of the government’s housing allocation for the district in one area, and protect against future speculative applications.
“CDC communications with the general public are woeful and the only information yielded by the council is under questioning from SOC and even then it is often partial,” said Mr Moylan.
“SOC, which is de facto the principle opposition to the hugely unpopular Chesterton proposal, would like to put you on notice that we believe that the council’s attitude towards consultation is a dereliction of responsibility.”
He went on to say: “Any observations you may have would be appreciated. In providing this you might wish to let us know the likely dates of the key events going forward e.g. special meeting, enquiries etc.
“We are continually asked by people about progress and would like to be able to respond,” he added.
The application, submitted by Bathurst Development Ltd, includes up to 100 units of student accommodation and 60 homes for the elderly, as well as a primary school, neighbourhood centre, employment land and playing fields.
A report published by Gloucestershire County Council highways on Friday (June 2) has also been criticised by SOC.
Mr Moylan described the report as “very late in the day” – with the application expected to be voted on at a full CDC meeting next month.
“GCC has said that it is satisfied with the application and has no objection,” he said.
“This has surprised us enormously as so many of the comments from residents have centred on traffic issues,” he added, referring to comments made on CDC’s planning portal.
He said the report “seems so one-eyed” that he has written on behalf of SOC to Cirencester’s two county councillors Joe Harris (Cirencester Park) and Nigel Robbins (Beeches).
“Everything about the report is such that it is difficult to avoid the belief that it was produced with no intention other than to nod the application through. It seems to be a classic of its type. The mistakes in the report are obvious even to a lay person,” he wrote.
Mr Moylan took issue with various sections of the report, including a part which states that the new development will “reduce” the “average journey times”, on, for example, the A419/A429 ring road between Stroud Road and Burford Road.
The report said: “Generally, traffic conditions will improve with the development and mitigation when compared with future year conditions with traffic growth but without the development and associated mitigation infrastructure.”
In his email to councillors Harris and Robbins, Mr Moylan said: “So not only in terms of how this report may influence the application decision but also in a wider sense of credibility in the whole planning and regulatory process we ask you to take a look at this report.
“As written, it actually says that unless this development goes ahead, traffic will get worse in and around Cirencester,” he said, adding: “It’s almost insulting.”
Christine Gore, CDC strategic director, in an email to Mr Moylan, said: “Officers have consistently taken what they believe to be a proportionate response to re-consultation depending upon the nature of the new/amended information and the extent of the impacts of that information.
“Obviously, when the application was registered extensive consultation was carried out to raise awareness of it.
“Again, in October and November, the proposed amendments were fairly significant and related to many third party objections (e.g. air quality, highways impact, building heights) hence the greater level of consultation.
“All of this information is also readily available via the Council’s website and I would respectfully suggest that any interested party should keep a close eye on that in order to stay up to date with matters pertaining to this (and any other) application.
“Whilst I note your comments about the level of consultation, officers have not done anything incorrectly and have consistently followed the relevant legislation.”
A CDC spokesman added that the council is satisfied that “as regards the Local Plan” it “has fully consulted all parties as required by the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulations 2012.”
Neil Troughton, manager at GCC, said: “The county council will make an impartial recommendation to CDC as to what transport improvements are needed as a result of the development.
