200+ New houses on Drake Street. Do YOU want a Fruitlands in Welland?

Having just read through all the posts regarding the proposed development at lawn farm, (i dont see any reason not to name it as that is where it is) i would like to say i agree with all the sentiments and will be opposing it, i have heard various conversations regarding it as Welland East, seems appropriate! And on the voting for our district councillor question must say how easy it is to get hoodwinked by people who have a separate agenda , hence wastedvote!

Readers of this thread / post may wish to be aware that Cllr Tom Wells attended the meeting last Friday and he complemented the village on the way the meeting was handled and the objective manner of the discussion.

I am sure Tom will not object to me mentioning this, but after the meeting the question of offical proceedure for representation when a conflict of interest exists was discussed and Tom has suggested that the Morton Ward can request a neighbouring Councillor to represent our views at MHDC. This seems a pragmatic suggestion and one which the WRAG can follow up at Friday's meeting.

Incidentally Toms Wells has put his name down to be a member of the WRAG.

Well at least we have a district councillor prepared to show his colours,,,,,,, pity about the parish council, still maybe they dont know about it yet, heads in sand etc

I suggest we ask Tom Wells to represent us if this propsal proceeds to an application. Tom has always been very active in Welland and over the years, has done a lot for us.

barryjt wrote:I suggest we ask Tom Wells to represent us if this propsal proceeds to an application. Tom has always been very active in Welland and over the years, has done a lot for us.

Well he was at the meeting last Friday. So he does know all about it.

barryjt wrote:I suggest we ask Tom Wells to represent us if this propsal proceeds to an application. Tom has always been very active in Welland and over the years, has done a lot for us.

But would it be in his interest? After all he did get a certain person to stand for his job on the council. I cannot see Tom helping us, but I am prepared to be nicely surprised. Id vote for him if he did!!

Beardy Pete is spot on this is a democracy and we need to make our views plain. This is a fantastic village, which needs very careful consideration and deliberation on any substantial changes. Lets follow the beardy one and make our voices heard.

wastedvote wrote:Well at least we have a district councillor prepared to show his colours,,,,,,, pity about the parish council, still maybe they dont know about it yet, heads in sand etc

No, I don't think any of the Parish Council have their heads in the sand, wastedvote.
I was at the meeting on Friday and probably saw you there, but I can't tell as you're not using your real name.

What is it that you think the Parish Council should be doing and aren't?

Kate Jefferies
Parish Councillor
Welland Parish Council

Kate wrote:

wastedvote wrote:Well at least we have a district councillor prepared to show his colours,,,,,,, pity about the parish council, still maybe they dont know about it yet, heads in sand etc

No, I don't think any of the Parish Council have their heads in the sand, wastedvote.
I was at the meeting on Friday and probably saw you there, but I can't tell as you're not using your real name.

What is it that you think the Parish Council should be doing and aren't?

Kate Jefferies
Parish Councillor
Welland Parish Council

Well mrs jefferies, with the greatest respect, as in my statement about tom wells and his stance on the proposed development,( firmly against), which puddle do you have your foot in, put simply for or against lawn farm development?

drakestreet wrote:I have just heard about the proposal to build 200+ houses on the site of ********* on Drake Street. Drake Street is my home and when I first heard this I took it as a joke. But apparently its not!

Step 1 is to have between 75-120 houses and step 2 is the same again. Plus the fact it will then open the flood gates for all the rest on Drake Street Welland to put in their own applications. To put it bluntly this will RUIN the village. Do we really need or want a Fruitlands type development in Welland?? Or do we want a village that is a community? Do you want another 400 cars a day in our area? Can you imagine a round about on Drake street, hundreds of kids ruining our rural atmosphere all to make a certain person a millionaire?? I thought ******* was supposed to be for the village and not against it?

So what are WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??? If we dont speak up and make a noisy protest this WILL HAPPEN!!

Fruitlands will likely look like Belgravia in comparison. Developers today would never consider a finalised development of such low density. Indeed the MHDC website states that their preferred option is for high density. This can be anything up to 15 houses per acre albeit given the topography of the site in question a maximium of 10 to 12 is a more realistic goal. Look no further than Hanley Swan and North Site if you want to know what we will end up with once all 30 acres are developed to their full potential. The developer has an obligation to their shareholders. That is to maximise the return on any investment. To do otherwise would not be conducive to the Board of any development company keeping their jobs! To them it is just business. To us it is our whole community and way of life. Don't even get me started on our so called local 'representatives'. 'Redacted' would not even begin to describe what he moderator of this page would do to my post! Unfortunately the May 2012 elections will be too late to stage a coup but by acting together we can make life very 'difficult' in the interim.

Thanks for reading this, now vote "no" above and support the Welland Residents Action Group. Apathy will see this development succeed. Act now, don't become one of the silent majority!

Thanks for reading this, now vote "no" above and support the Welland Residents Action Group. Apathy will see this development succeed. Act now, don't become one of the silent majority!

If the plans go ahead they will become the silent minority. There will just be another Welland.

Nothing wrong with Upper Welland, but do you feel part of that community? If you think about it the first house there would probably be closer to me than the Lawnside Estate. It will be a case of Welland and Welland Lawnside.

Another thought no doubt if the health and safety bods get their way there will be street lights in the new development, just like those in new ones Hanley Swan. Personally I hate that idea. Can you imagine the glow over the village at night? It will be like having a motorway services on the horizon.

Kate wrote:

wastedvote wrote:Well at least we have a district councillor prepared to show his colours,,,,,,, pity about the parish council, still maybe they dont know about it yet, heads in sand etc

No, I don't think any of the Parish Council have their heads in the sand, wastedvote.
I was at the meeting on Friday and probably saw you there, but I can't tell as you're not using your real name.

What is it that you think the Parish Council should be doing and aren't?

Kate Jefferies
Parish Councillor
Welland Parish Council

How about a referendum?

"This Parish formally opposes any development outside of the formal settlement boundary as defined South Worcestershire Development Plan"

Zorro wrote:

Kate wrote:

wastedvote wrote:Well at least we have a district councillor prepared to show his colours,,,,,,, pity about the parish council, still maybe they dont know about it yet, heads in sand etc

No, I don't think any of the Parish Council have their heads in the sand, wastedvote.
I was at the meeting on Friday and probably saw you there, but I can't tell as you're not using your real name.

What is it that you think the Parish Council should be doing and aren't?

Kate Jefferies
Parish Councillor
Welland Parish Council

How about a referendum?


"This Parish formally opposes any development outside of the formal settlement boundary as defined South Worcestershire Development Plan"

Excellent idea! The Parish Council should instigate it. However, the District Council Planners are not obliged to act upon it, which ever way the vote goes but I believe they have to take account of it and would be fools if they didn't.

terry1 wrote:Editor I think YOU agree with these new houses or you would be more enthusiastic in opposing them.

Myself I think its absolutely awful!!! Who in thier right mind would want a development like this in the village. If we let this go through it will be the thin edge of the wedge. Next will be building across the road a dozen houses. Then lets build another 20 on the Pheasant land. Oh isnt Drake street dangerous for all these cars using it now so lets straighten the bend and while we are at it build a few more down Drake Street. If we let this sneak through you can wave goodbye to Welland as a village.

A certain person will NEVER be getting my vote again. Do NOT believe it when they start spouting things like "affordable houses for village kids" total and utter rubbish. They HAVE to build affordable houses these days. Next they will be saying they have fully consulted the villagers and only a small minority were against it. So disprove this by giving the meeting on Friday your support. Lets make it standing room only and make a certain person, you know who we mean, as uncomfortable as possible. He has shown us his true colours and its the colour of MONEY.

Has anyone any ideas as to how we can effectively block this blight on our village??? Come on there must be someone out there with ideas!!

LETS HAVE MORE FEEDBACK!!

Given Terry1's point on our local representatives.....

I think it is a safe bet that the ideas and thinking behind this development must have been in play for A NUMBER OF YEARS! That being the case I would like to think that the relevent information has been lodged in the Register of Member's Interests held by the Parish and District Councils. If this is not the case then there are some serious questions to be answered. There again perhaps I am being too naive and trusting that our system of local government actually works in the interests of the voters and residents.

Kate wrote:
What is it that you think the Parish Council should be doing and aren't?

How about a vote of no confidence in the Chairman?

I know that a formal application has not yet been lodged, but I find it totally unacceptable that he has gone this far without stepping down from both the Parish and District councils

If people do want to oppose this particular development the first thing to do is to attend the meeting this Friday in the Village hall - if you attended the last meeting and left an email address you will have already received some information. At this meeting we can determine what we need to do.

For people who did not attend the Parish Meeting this Monday a decision was made to ask Community First to do a survey of the village residents to find out what affordable houses the village needs. A document was shown defining affordable housing - I cannot get a copy at the moment. A series of questions was asked by the attendees about who would get the houses - the outcome was less than clear save it would be a bidding system with people with the most need getting them with little or no guarantee that it would actually villagers that would get them.

It was also clearly stated that if affordable housing was needed for a village exceptional rules could apply to land adjacent to the exiting permitted development boundary. (The proposed development is not adjacent to the boundary)
If land like this were to be identified it could be purchased and affordable houses be built on it. (It has been indicated that the proposed development would be 50% affordable housing and this would be its justification).

On a separate note I do feel it would be helpful that if people are writing messages on this forum they use their name as anonymous messages are rather hollow. If we are to fight this we need to be united and clear about our opinions however difficult that may be.

I would like to add some thoughts to the Lawn Farm development forum.

Unfortunately I couldn't attend the newly-formed action group meeting on Friday (we have small children to put to bed at that time) but my husband did. I had previously attended the packed-out Friday meeting the week before. Both of us are so sad at this proposal of developing Lawn Farm's land into houses. I almost cried when I first saw the concept drawings. Our garden backs onto Roger's land, indeed the barns our house is made of used to belong to him, and the edge of the proposed sight is not 100m from my own beautiful hay meadow.

When we moved to Welland in 2006 we moved into our dream home, the village was just perfect in size with all the facilities you might want, but with countryside just over there, just out the back and over the blue gate; quietude, open fields, views across to Bredon hill, altogether just what we had searched Worcestershire a year for. I would like to be so bold as to suggest that my three children and I walk the very piece of land under proposal more than anyone in Welland; the various footpaths from our back gate across Lawn Farm land to Drake Street form at least two walks a week and I have educated my children about the seasons, grasses and local flora, the farming year, trees, weather, bugs and beetles in the very acres this proposal covers. No wonder I have lost so much sleep about it and feel a tight knot of worry and upset in my stomach whenever it comes into mind. I try not to imagine a time when the footpaths across those precious acres are no longer knee-deep in waving grass, bordered by untamed hawthorn, full of birds and the sound of the wind, but instead resound to the sound of heels striking tarmac under orange street lights. I try not to imagine it because it upsets me so much to even think of losing the very aspect of our family life in Welland that makes this such a perfect place for us to be.

When I hear Welland residents who have lived here for generations saying they approve of more housing in Welland so their children have somewhere to live, I do understand; after all, they have seen such changes in the village already since their own childhoods that why make a fuss over just another patch of housing which could be very useful. But blow-ins like us moved here specifically because of how Welland is today, how it is now. We don't want to see the sort of change that would make Welland into something different from the perfectly wonderful place it is already.

If orange skies glow just over the blue gate one day, then we couldn't stay here; part of the dream would have crumbled for us.

SarahR, I share your sentiments. Like yourself since moving to the village a few years ago, I too have enjoyed the amenity you describe so ellequently. As the Chairman of the Action Group I will do everything I can to fight this. It will be a long slog but it must be done. I cannot believe anyone really rejects the call for local housing, particularly for young couples who need a place of their own. However that must surely be based on appropriate and quantifyable need - and that certainly is not a 30 acre development with 50% affordable homes, the majority of which will not go to people in our village anyhow. There are far more appropriate locations within the existing settlement boundary. Thank you for your support to the WRAG. Alan