Borough plan under fire
A PUBLIC consultation on plans to build thousands of homes in Nuneaton and Bedworth has been blasted by campaigners as difficult to understand.
As residents join together to fight developments on green belt land, they say the council is not making it easy to share their views.
A consultation is currently running looking for borough residents’ opinions on the borough plan which sets out development across the area until 2031.
Residents in Bedworth are particularly concerned about plans to build on School Lane which is a green belt area and is already a busy road for traffic.
Steven Young, chairman of Bedworth and Exhall Development Action Meetings (BEDLAM), is urging people to take part in the consultation but believes it isn’t being made accessible.
He said: “It’s been set up in such a way to make it as difficult as possible.
“If you look at the form for representations, even using the term representations, it’s just hard to understand.
“They will not accept anything online, it has to be on paper but other councils and even the government accept online submissions.
“It feels like they are trying to set you up for a fall so that they can only accept some object ion s because they’re not filled out properly.
“It just feels like a really tricky underhand way to make it look like they have less objections than there are.”
Kelly Ford, head of planning policy and economic development has admitted that the forms could cause some people difficulties but there is help available. She said: “The form being used for the consultation is a model form provided by the Planning Inspectorate to ensure that all the information required for the examination of the Borough Plan is captured. “We understand the difficulties some people have with the form given its technical nature. Guidance notes have been made available and officers are also able to assist if residents contact the Town Hall. “The council has also said that it will accept letters from people wishing to submit comments but have requested that people provide critical information requested on the form such as contact details, whether they wish to appear at the examination etc in order for the council to keep people appropriately informed as the examination progresses.” It’s not the first time the coun- cil has been slammed for using council speak. Last year, a resident spoke out after being sent a long and confusing document regarding the borough plan.
The 142-page document filled with council jargon was branded “an affront to local democracy” by the Plain English Campaign.
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has proposed that almost 14,000 new homes will have to be built in the borough by 2031.
Out of those homes, 3,000 have already been built or have been granted planning permission and 2,330 are to meet Coventry’s housing need.
Residents have vowed to fight plans to build houses that they claim will ‘destroy’ the area.
Mr Young added: “We are going to make them listen to us,
“We just don’t think there’s enough infrastructure here to accommodate this, it’s the Coventry overspill.
“Over the years people have managed to protect the Green Belt land for my generation and we are hoping to do the same for our children and grandchildren.”
They will not accept anything online, it has to be on paper but other councils and even the government accept online submissions. Steven Young