Hi,

20 Houses proposed at Wharf Road, Whaley Bridge ?

83 Houses proposed behind Macclesfield Road , Whaley Bridge, despite massive opposition only a year or so ago. ?

178 Houses proposed between Elnor Lane, New Road and Long Hill ?

Do you Care ? I do!  - Public meeting on Tue 16th Oct 7.30pm at Uniting Church.

In response to Central Government targets, your High Peak Borough Council Councillors have voted in favour of a proposal for between 195 and 238 additional houses between now and 2028 in Whaley Bridge.  That is up to 15 new houses a year, although it is always possible that a large number of houses might be built at once. It could have been more, but from the three options given to the Borough Councillors, your three local Borough and Whaley Bridge Town Councillors ,Cllr John Pritchard, Cllr David Lomax and Cllr Linda Leather, were among those that voted for the lowest number of houses. The sites which have been proposed for these houses are indicated above, and were made public on the 13th Sept.  

A consultation process has now started from the 13th September which finishes on the 25th October. That is just 5 WEEKS away.

If you fail to respond to the consultation process then the above developments could become a reality.

The proposals could have a huge impact on Whaley Bridge.

To respond to the consultations, whether you agree or disagree, you need to go to the following site and give your views on the questions asked: The site tells you where houses are proposed ,tells you why they are proposed and asks you for your views. Note that Whaley Bridge is in the Central Area, so you should respond initially to the Central Area consultation

 http://highpeak-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/high_peak/ 

Note also that you can also respond to the Glossopdale and Buxton Area consultations and indicate that you think the housing should be moved there if you so wish.

It is absolutely vital that you make your views known, and you should also respond to the two other consultation documents on the 'Strategic Policy Option's, and the 'Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Update for High Peak Local Plan Options', which are found at the same place. These are  important questions, and despite the rather confusing terms and language in these consultations , which might best have been vetted by the Plain English Campaign before publication, you should try to look at them and make your views known.

*Response are counted individually, so for maximum effect , respond individually*

PUBLIC MEETING - Whaley Bridge Town Council has called a public meeting which will be held on Tuesday 16th October at the Uniting Church in Whaley Bridge at 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Present will be a Senior High Peak Borough Council Planning Officer who will be able to answer questions. This meeting is only a week before the consultation closes, so please do not delay in passing the information about the proposed development sites on to others,  and asking people to respond to the consultation. Do not wait till this meeting, vent your feelings, and then not take part in the consultation. That will not change a thing. Responding to the consultation by answering the questions is the only process in which you can make your views absolutely clear and have your voice counted. The public meeting will not result in a change to the process of consultation.

DROP IN MEETING - High Peak Borough Council are arranging a 'Drop In' meeting on Tuesday 9th October at the Uniting Church in Whaley Bridge at which people will be able to ask questions. Please take advantage of this.

It is really important that you respond. If you do not respond to the consultation process, then it will almost certainly be viewed as tacit acceptance of the proposals.

Full list of drop in meetings(for others in the near area affected by this) are shown below:

• Monday 1 October Octagon Lounge Pavilion Gardens Buxton
• Tuesday 2 October Bradbury House Glossop
• Tuesday 9 October Uniting Reform Church Whaley Bridge
• Thursday 11 October Volunteer Centre New Mills
• Wednesday 17 October Town Hall Chapel-en-le-Frith
• Thursday 18 October Women’s Institute Building Chinley

For those not on the internet, or who cannot get to the link above, Questionnaires can be collected from Council offices (Buxton,Glossop) or downloaded from www.highpeak.gov.uk/hp/localplanoptions

High Peak Borough Council can be contacted directly about this as follows:

Town Hall Buxton : 0845 129 7777 or 01298 28400

Whaley Bridge Town Councillor contact details can be found at www.whaleybridge.com

Further information is available on the consultation website, including help on how to register and submit comments. Further support is available on the online: http://www.highpeak.gov.uk/hp/council-services/local-development-framework/consultation-database

It is all up to YOU. Please respond to the consultation. If you do not, then the proposals are likely to become reality and noone will be any the wiser about how people actually feel about our town.

Cheers

Jon

further details from HPBC can be seen at http://www.highpeak.gov.uk/hp/council-services/the-high-peak-local-plan/local-plan-options-consultation-2012

Edited by user 11 December 2012 14:20:00(UTC)  | Reason: various changes to text

Any resident of Whaley must be aware of the traffic conditions on the B5470 Chapel/ Macclesfield and the A5004 Buxton roads, not only during the rush hour periods but also at the school dropping off and picking up times and through out the day when large delivery trucks still come through the town. The amount of traffic causes long frustrating “nose to tail jams”. The lack of the new bridge also adds to traffic hold ups and congestion in the centre through out the day. The danger, noise and air pollution must be demoralizing for residents living along side these roads as well as to the motorists. If yet more large housing developments are built within Whaley the extra traffic that would result would appear to be reason enough for rejection of such plans in consideration of people already living here. The pieces of land chosen for the proposal in Whaley Bridge all access onto roads that are already very congested, therefore if land with access to the by-pass or the A6 was considered we would see less traffic going directly through the town centre. Having read the council's reports I'm not even convinced that these large housing developments are required.

Edited by user 08 October 2012 19:04:37(UTC)  | Reason: I hate autocorrect!

I got that distinct impression as well. Beside Wharf Road, I had to ask someone to point out the brownfield sites, as it wasn't at all clear to me. What struck me is that this is going to happen, it is just a question of how many houses Whaley cops for. I wanted to know the proportion that were to be social housing, but ran out of time to speak to the Planning officer as I had to go. Does anyone know the number of Social houses we have in Whaley & their occupamcy rates,as talking to someone last-night who delivered letters arounnd the area, stated that there are quite a few empty? Good busy evening & well attended by concerned residents.Next Tuesday's meeting should be full to the rafters.

Edited by user 10 October 2012 09:22:20(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

ive been told this process is a smokescreen and houses will definatley be built on the land behind macclesfield road as this is the only site in whaley where the owner of the land is willing to sell planning permission will be granted and there will be a big profit for the bulder