Strategic Planning at Castle Point in a Spin

Councillors are saying “We do not want Castle Point to be turned into a concrete jungle, but don’t know how to stop it !!”

“The Government wants to see more development in South Essex and has got us over a barrel.”

What do outsiders think?

It seems surprising that Castle Point Councillors have chosen to question the Conservative led Government especially when the Council has a Conservative Administration.

One wonders what they expect to achieve because most District Councils are managing to avoid a clash with Government by putting house building plans in place to avoid planning powers being effectively taken away from the Council.

But as Castle Point Council is so against the new house building targets as a resident you would have to agree that the Council is doing the right thing.

If Castle Point truly do not know what the heck to do then perhaps the Leader of The Council should be making an urgent appointment in Westminster to tell David Cameron and Eric Pickles that Conservative Government Policy is not for Castle Point.

It is all a bit of a mystery why all the Conservative run Councils in South Essex have not got together and challenged Pickles and Osborne because they all must know that saying to residents that they had no choice but to follow Conservative Government Policy will not rub on the doorstep.

Perhaps with Campaigning for the 2015 General Election already underway there might be change in Government Policy to let Castle Point off the hook?

As regards the Rochford Core Strategy speaking to residents of Hawkwell recently identified to us some significant flaws in what is happening.  They want to know that if their children, as young adults, wished to stay in the area then they could find housing to rent or buy.  They do not understand the term Affordable Housing.  Residents think that this means that there will be one and two bedroom houses to buy at prices they can afford.  Not so. Affordable Houses means that these houses are made available for rent from a Registered Social Landlord.  Unfortunately, there are more than enough people on the Housing Register to take these up already.

Whatever Government “Help to Buy Scheme” you look at, even with the 5% cash and the remaining deposit of 15% Guaranteed by Mr. Cameron announced today, you still need an 80% Mortgage.  Even with a property costing £300,000 you still need a Mortgage of £240,000.  Plus £45,000 provided by the Government on the 15% Deposit making a 95% Loan of £285,000. Can young adults with University Loans of 20,000 – £40,000 EACH afford a Loan of £285,000 on top? 

How can these new houses be for our kids?

If the houses for sale are too big and too expensive then young adults will have to leave the area which is what the Rochford District Census 2011 suggests has happened and will no doubt continue. Perhaps this explains why the Rochford District Census 2011 also shows that there has been no increase in 0-18 year olds over 10 years.

As regards our aging population Council Officers told us at a Hearing that if older people wished to downsize then they could also apply to rent Affordable Homes from Registered Social Landlords.  But why would they want to rent 3 bedroom homes even if the Registered Social Landlords could ignore the waiting list on the Housing Register?

There is something fundamentally wrong here if residents think that the young (children) and old (parents) are not properly catered for in Council Housing Strategies for the local communities that they serve.

The housing in Rochford District has increased at average of 183 per year (2001 – 2011 by Council figures) and apart from the housing stock for rent by Registered Social Landlords this has met the needs of all age groups.

Perhaps Castle Point has more to concern itself with before it decides whether to buck Government Policy or not.

And Rochford District needs to consider these facts and trends in its Revision of the Core Strategy which starts again in January 2014.

If you want to read the Echo Article (27 September 2013) entitled “Council fears for a concrete jungle future” then it is below;

CONCERNS have been raised that the future development of thousands of homes in Castle Point could be left in the hands of the Government.

Castle Point Council is in the process of creating a new Local Plan which will act as a blue-print for where new homes could be built in the borough over the next 15 years.

It is the authority’s third attempt at putting together the housing strategy, as the original proposals were rejected by a Government inspector in 2010 and again in September 2011, following opposition from residents and backbench councillors.

Now, councillors are claiming the new draft document, which is yet to be completed, might not get voted through as it bears too much resemblance to previous plans.

If the new plan is rejected at full council, councillors fear the Government’s Planning Inspectorate would intervene and take the decision-making powers away from the local authority.

Alf Partridge, Conservative councillor for St Mary’s ward, said: “When I last saw the latest scheme I was not happy with it because it would still mean seeing the demise of green belt. I cannot see any difference between this plan and the last one.

“Council officers are making a valiant effort to try to rescue us from a ridiculous situation and find new ideas of where to put these homes, but what the heck can we do?

“The Government wants to see more development in south Essex and has got us over a barrel. It was talking about 200 homes a year and now its 250 homes. I am not happy to commit to such high numbers of new houses.

“But if we do not come up with a practical plan to allow a certain number of homes to be and members at the moment as we try to agree something. There is a good chance of the Government coming in and taking over. ”

Dave Blackwell, leader of the Canvey Independent Party, said: “The council has found itself in a difficult position. If everyone doesn’t agree this time round, the Government could come in and decide things for us.

“I don’t think the Tories will vote it through because they are looking at a lot of development on the mainland which could lose them voters. But they have to make tough decisions.”

However, Tory councillor Bill Sharp said a new committee of six councillors has been put together to scrutinise all the potential development sites in the next few weeks.

He also said new sites have come to light, such as the Blinking Owl site off the A127, which could help relieve the pressure on the major green belt sites.

Mr Sharp said: “The Blinking Owl site has been left out in the past, but already has around six or seven entrances from the A127 and could be a suitable site. While I am concerned, I am not as concerned as I was a few weeks ago.

“I am confident we can come to a decision that will not see us lost our virgin green belt sites.”

 

 

Will Changes in the Probation Service Benefit Local Voluntary Sector Organisations?

Yes, the Question is “Will Changes in the Probation Service Benefit Local Voluntary Sector Organisations?”

The Coalition Government hope that will be the case.

National comment From the The Guardian, Wednesday 9 January 2013

“The Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, is to outline plans for the wholesale outsourcing of the probation service with private companies and voluntary sector organisations to take over the rehabilitation of the majority of offenders by 2015.”

“The public probation service is to be scaled back and “refocused” to specialise in dealing only with the most dangerous and high-risk offenders and public protection cases.”

“The majority of services will be contracted out on a payment-by-result basis.”

“While the public probation service will not be banned outright from bidding for the work, it will be expected to do so only in partnership with the private sector.”

“The current arrangement in London where Serco and the probation service delivers the community payback or unpaid work contract is regarded as the most likely model.”

Local Comment from the Rochford Independent

This seems to me to be a great opportunity for the voluntary sector organisations in Southend, Castle Point and Rochford to consider bidding for the resultant commissioning opportunities next year. These organisations may or may not have any experience of bidding or tendering for public sector outsourcing projects however it represents an excellent opportunity for the existing volunteers providing advice and placements for purely voluntary work, or the increasingly popular unpaid work contract to help CV’s, to increase their own skills and provide their members or subscribing charities and operational voluntary groups with an increased source of human resources to do their work. The additional bonuses will be an income and funding from the public sector contracts that are won and the benefit of community guided rehabilitation to offenders.

I would like to see existing voluntary groups to benefit and provide this service in future rather than big companies moving further into the public sector with lucrative contracts which do not reduce costs. Hopefully the voluntary sector organisations in South East Essex will see this as an opportunity to marry their existing services to something new, adding value and ensuring their existence into the future because of falling grants from other public sector donor organisations.

I would like to see our Local Councils with experience in bidding and procurement giving the voluntary sector organisations help as needed.

To beat the private sector big companies they will all have to start right now negotiating and preparing for alliances otherwise they might lose out.

The Pickles Effect – And Castle Point throws out a Planning Application

Originally reported here at the Echo (520 homes and business park rejected on Thundersley Plotlands)

and Commented upon by Simon (assumed to be Simon Hart Vice Chairman of Hands off our Greenbelt Action Group)

I would like to say a THANK YOU to every one involved Publicly as I have done via email already.

To Barry Braizier who has fought for this land for many many years with the support of the local and wider area residents.
To the Councillors of Castle Point for Listening to the residents of the Borough it was fantastic to see unity in the Council Chamber over a topic that is so important to everyone with constructive objections to the Barratt’s application. This action of unity sets out the Councils Stance on development to all Developers setting out to submit plans to Castle Point.

Thanks also to Rebecca Harris (MP ) for actively perusing the Conservative Party before the election and the Coalition after the election and for Eric Pickles for issuing a formal letter of intent for the abolishment of Spatial strategies, which will remove the threat of enforced development on protected greenbelt land like Canvey and Daws Heath.

 The Kiln Road site needs to be allocated a new status that is outlined in the new Local Government Bill a site of local and wildlife interest. Thanks to Bob Spink for his support, and the Echo for keeping the story alive in the local press.

In regard to housing in Castle Point do not forget that the Council located nearly 4000 sites for homes that were not on Green Belt , that still a huge amount of homes for the infrastructure to support .

A big thank you goes to everyone who wrote in and objected or turned up to the meeting .

Once again every one WELL DONE, Castle Point has made a massive leap forward.

What other Councils have done;

– Taunton Deane Borough Council: reduced its housing target from 18,000 to 14,000 a year
– Cotswold District Council: cut its housing target from 345 to 300 homes a year
– West Oxfordshire District Council: stopped work on preparing its core strategy
– South Oxfordshire District Council: stopped preparing core strategy
– Telford & Wrekin Council: ripping up its housing targets
– Castle Point Borough Council AGAIN !!: planning inspector scrapped hearing on housing numbers
– Bristol City Council: planning inspector holding a slimmed down session on housing targets
– Dacorum Borough Council: taking advice from the Planning Inspectorate
– South Northamptonshire Council: delaying decisions on large scale housing developments pending further guidance