Pressure mounts on council to axe bid to raze shopping areas
PRESSURE is building on politicians to scrap plans to bulldoze two Uttoxeter shopping precincts and the town’s bus station to make way for houses.
Amid anger over last year’s “inadequate” public consultation on the Uttoxeter Masterplan, more than 1,500 people have signed a petition calling for the project to be shelved.
Now, former borough council leader Richard Grosvenor has claimed “no one wants” it and is calling on Tory-controlled East Staffordshire Borough Council to tear it up and start again.
Uttoxeter Labour Party chairman Zdzislaw Krupski has also urged Uxonians not to “be fooled” by the promise of a second public consultation. The Uttoxeter town councillor said: “East Staffordshire Borough Council are trying to defuse the anger felt by local people about a ‘masterplan’ which is totally unworthy of the name.
“It is inaccurate and based on inadequate information and consultation and contains proposals which would devastate the town centre.
“However, it remains an approved plan for Uttoxeter and until it is rescinded by the council, its proposals remain the council’s policy.
Don’t be fooled; this promise of further consultation still leaves the town centre at risk of demolition to make way for more housing.
“Uttoxeter Labour Party will continue to work with local people until (the council) agrees to replace this document with a new plan which reflects the wishes of local people.”
Branston ward councillor Mr Grosvenor - now sitting as a “centreright independent” after being expelled from the Conservative Party amid allegations of “bullying and harassment”, which he denies and is appealing against, claimed: “The consultation they’re planning in May isn’t what they should be doing - it’s consulting on a plan that no one wants.
“It’s being packed away until after the elections in May so it doesn’t affect some councillors’ chances of being elected [in the council elections earlier that month].
“The council has seven weeks before purdah [the period before an election when councils must remain strictly politically neutral] when they could start the consultation. If they were going to consult properly, they’d start again and consult on a new plan.
“In the original, inadequate, consultation last year, people were given 12 days to respond and weren’t asked whether they actually wanted the masterplan or not. “The consultation was sent to parish councils when many weren’t actually operating.
“In the consultation responses, not one person said ‘build more houses’, but that’s now the plan.
“I also understand landowners have not been consulted. When full council voted these plans through in December, councillors hadn’t been shown the consultation responses, of which there were around 160.
“And it’s unclear how many of the organisations consulted actually provided a response.”
Having been approved in December, the masterplan will see the town’s bus station and part of the Maltings car park replaced by homes, with more built around the derelict Wheatsheaf pub.
It will also see the Maltings Shopping Centre razed to the ground to make way for houses and a couple of large shop units, with the Trinity Centre replaced with more accommodation.
East Staffordshire Borough Council declined to comment. The East Staffordshire Conservative Association has been approached for comment, but has not responded.