WHAT’S GOING ON?
 Sandford Farm Back on the Agenda

Despite resident’s and LVAG’s efforts, the Inspector at the 2009 public enquiry allowed outline planning permission for development of 491 houses and a 150 bed care home at Sandford Farm. The land has now been bought by Taylor Wimpey and they plan to bring forward applications for planning and remediation licenses this year.

David Parker , chairman of LVAG, said “Some kind of development is now inevitable and LVAG will concentrate on making any development the safest and best possible for local residents”. Taylor Wimpey has begun consulting LVAG, village societies and other groups. LVAG has many unresolved issues that we raised during the planning process and we will ensure that the developer takes note and responds to these concerns. David said “Although over 300 residents signed up as funding members during fund raising for the public inquiry — what we now need is for more residents to come forward as active members and help us work with Taylor Wimpey who have a whole team of professional advisors.”

 		 

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

Taylor Wimpey held a public exhibition and consultation at the Oakwood Centre on 15th and 16th of December.
LVAG feel that this consultation was a bit thin on detail, badly timed and for whatever reason badly advertised.
LVAG have no funds and rely on goodwill and donations from its active members to fund newsletters etc and so we relied on the developer’s promises to post letters to all local residents inviting them to the consultation but it appears that some letters arrived very late or not at all—maybe this was down to the snow!
The material they presented is on the web at
http://dpp-projects.com/sandford-farm
LVAG have requested further public exhibitions and consultations and Taylor Wimpey plan to these once they have more detail on their design and remediation plans.”

WHAT NEXT:-
The Developer must get Full Planning Permission by making a Reserve Matters Application
The Developer must get a Remediation Licence from the Environment Agency
The Developer must discharge all 47 conditions attached to the Outline Planning Permission
Taylor Wimpey seem to be keen to consult LVAG at every stage

   BEHIND THE SCENES?
Since the appeal LVAG have been talking to the Environment Agency, who will have to licence the extraction of the waste from the landfill, to keep them focussed on residents deep concerns.
Wokingham BC planning officers have also agreed that they will let us know about any applications to discharge any of the 47 planning conditions.

 

Click here to read the Decision: Secretary of State's Decision

Click here to read the Inspector's Report to the Secretary of State : Inspector's Report

Click here to read Lisa Busch's closing statement : LVAG Closing Final.pdf

 

Corby Birth Defects due to Toxic Waste

Council Owe a Duty of Care

We have been closely following the case of families who claimed that their children were born with defects caused by exposure to toxic substances during waste clean-up operations in Corby, Northamptonshire.  Two of LVAG’s Committee members went along to hear the Judgement in the High Court in London last Wednesday.  The Judge ruled that the local council had been ‘extensively negligent’ and were ‘liable in public nuisance, negligence and breach of statutory duty’.  LVAG will be making further representations to our own local Council, Councillors and MPs regarding our concerns relating to the unnecessary and dangerous proposal to ‘clean up’ the Sandford Farm site in such close proximity to homes, all in the name of inappropriate, unnecessary, over-development.  The judgement cites the affected areas is up to 4km away (para. 889), which means that all of Woodley, Sonning, Charvil, Hurst, Twyford, Winnersh and most of Earley would be vulnerable to airborne contamination from the reclamation process.  There is now a clear legal principle that local authorities hold a duty of care to protect communities from the effects of disturbing contaminated land.

The Corby judgement (para 886) says “What happened was that it [Corby Borough Council] bit off more than it could chew and did not really appreciate the enormity, ramifications and difficulty of what it was setting out to achieve in terms of removing and depositing very substantial quantities of contaminated material.”  Does this sound familiar?

Click here to read the judgement :

corby-group-corby-district-council.pdf

LVAG Fundraising Continues

 LVAG exceeded their fundraising target of £10,000 thanks to generous donations from nearly 300 residents, local Councils and Village Societies.  However, the extended Inquiry involved extra costs and we have a fund shortfall of approx. £2,000.

 The cost breakdown is:

Legal support (Barrister and Solicitor)

£10,500 (incl. VAT)

Expert Witnesses (remediation and planning)

£3,100 (incl. VAT)

Administration (photocopying/couriers etc)

 £900

 If you are able to make a contribution to LVAG please drop off your donation to LVAG c/o either

8 Comet Way, Woodley, RG5 4NZ or 5 Mohawk Way, RG5 4UE, or via PayPal on the LVAG website. 
   

Thank You

We would like to take this opportunity to thank David Parker and Phil Challis for putting in such a huge amount of time and effort to research, prepare and present their evidence at the Inquiry at no cost to residents – and thanks have to go to all of you who have contributed so much to this campaign in so many ways; printing and distributing Newsletters, organising and attending fundraising events, simply taking time to read our Newsletters, sending us letters of support, and to the council letters of objection,  and generally giving up your precious private time to help out in whatever way you can.

We have made many new friends and have come to appreciate even more how strong the local community is and how we can make our combined voice heard.  We hope you will be able to continue to support our fight to protect the Loddon Valley – together we can make a difference!