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Stefan Kosciuszko - 08 Dec 2005

Stefan Kosciuszko

Abbas Hall

Cornard Tye

Great Cornard

Suffolk CO10 0QD

 

8th December 2005

Open Letter to all:

 

Babergh District Councillors

Babergh Parish Councillors

Babergh District Residents

East Anglian Daily Times Readers

 

Inspector’s Report – Babergh Local Plan (Alteration No 2)

 

As we all continue our daily life struggling to make a living and provide for our families I am calling upon you to take a few moments to pause and reflect upon what provides the quality of life in our District. Babergh is blessed with one of the highest number of listed homes in the UK and extensive tracts of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Special Landscape Areas (SLA) which we all enjoy and that provide “a quiet backdrop” to what makes this area so special for all of us.

 

The Inspector reviewing our Local Plan has produced his report and has recommended the deletion of Policy CR05 already included in the Local Plan:

 

“Special Landscape Areas will be protected through the strict control of development. Unless there is an overriding national or regional need for development having a material adverse impact on the locality of the site and no alternative site is available, such development will not be acceptable”

 

The replacement proposed by the Inspector reads:

 

Development proposals in Special Landscape Areas will only be permitted where they

  • Maintain or enhance the special landscape qualities of the area, identified in the relevant landscape character assessment

  • Are designed and sited so as to harmonise with the landscape setting

 

This change is a major shift in emphasis. “Strict control of development” has been removed and importantly the burden of proof has been shifted away from the developer requiring to show “need” and “no alternative”. In its place is a need for the SLA to prove its special qualities and a nebulous, wholly indefinable comment for the development to harmonise with the landscape setting

 

I urge you today to lift the phone to your local councillor and express your strongest possible objection to this recommendation by the Inspector. It is only a recommendation and your District Council and 43 individuals elected by you can make a difference. They meet on 13th December and can vote to reject it.

 

Also please tell them to reject a further recommendation to include a newly inserted development of 170 homes in the Great Cornard Special Landscape Area that will destroy historic views across the Stour Valley painted by Gainsborough in his pictures “Cornard Wood” and “Mr. & Mrs. Andrews”. David Dimbleby’s BBC programme a “Picture of Britain” showed these views this summer…walking or driving through a housing estate will look very different.

 

You have a chance to make a difference…..many of you will have experience of dealing with the powerful combination of a District Council bamboozled by big money developers and “outsiders”.

 

 

ACT NOW…….SAVE CONSTABLE AND GAINSBOROUGH COUNTRY