AudiLover

give a rough general area. I might have some good news. Or half good anyway.

Jamie

Uk

Clarebabes

I'll give you a clue:

I went to the Ricoh Arena to watch a spot of Rugby today

AudiLover

midlands?

why would anyone want to build 2500 houses there for?

Clarebabes

I assume you're trying to goad me, but due to 2 Jags Prescott, we're having to build loads of new houses in the area. Even if we object, then it will go ahead anyway.

Worst thing is a housing development is planned on a heath near here which would destroy a large wildlife habitat Not very happy about that, but seeing as Earl Spencer wants the money, not alot we can do.

jonc

You could try pointing out that house building creates massive amounts of CO2. Thereby if the development goes through, it will ensure that the government and local council will fail to meet its reduction CO2 targets and will push the climate over the tipping point and cause a runaway green house effect that warm the planet up and create a environmental disaster similar to that of Venus and will destroy mankind and life on this planet. Life on this planet rests on their shoulders!! Its is their obligation to lead by example and to ensure that they look after the environment for our future and they will loose votes come election.

The Chief

I'm afraid you maybe p***ing in the wind, a good friend of mine is a senior land buyer for a big house builder, chances are it is now too late, money has been exchanged etc. The money involved in this is extortionate. they'll cram as many houses as they can in as little space they can just so they can fill their pockets come bonus time and drown themselves in champagne.

Not being negative but at this stage i dont think there is anything you can do

Clarebabes

Yes, I agree. By the time the public at large find out about it, it's probably too late. They've probably only just told us to make sure their obligations have been met

Very sad. This used to be a nice little area to live in. Now they're sticking as many houses as they can on the smallest of spaces! I bet if they could develop my house and garden, they'd have 10 apartments on it!

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Feel sorry for you Clare. Is it one of those school sites?

Clarebabes

No, it's the large greenfield site near St Crispins. Houses all the way from our estate down to the A45.

Don't you work for a house builder - enemy of the public?

Clarebabes

Oh, but they are selling off a school site in the village and the field by my daughter's school near Sainsbury's, plus the old Timken site will have thousands on it. That junction is already a nightmare!

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I work for the house builder that built the St. Crispins development, but we've got nothing to do with the 'proposed' further developments. That deal was done between English Partnerships (who own the land) and Redrow.

Clarebabes

That's OK then. When you say "the deal was done", do you mean it's already been signed and doesn't matter what we say?

The Zohan

I have infracted you for this obvious attempt at trolling.

Hi Clare, is this the old Timken site by chance?

I did somework for the NCC around 26 months or so ago and saw their plans for development, cannot remember how many in total but am sure this is the tip of the iceberg and little will stop it, rubber stamped by government.

Northampton will pretty much join up with MK

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I'm pretty sure it's been all signed and sealed.
The first we heard of it (whether people higher up in the company knew!?) was when the MD of Redrow Northampton came into our marketing suite in St. Crispin and rather smugly announced the fact they now own the surrounding fields, make of that what you will
The residents who own houses fronting on to the fields have got together in an action group to try and stop the Sandy Lane Relief Road (they have fliers in the windows).
Here's the Councils own website about the relief road and development plans
Sandy Lane Relief Road
All I know is that there will be ZERO chance of stopping the relief road, whether you can still put up a fight against the development I'm not sure.

Nicci

I went to MK yesterday via twisty roads, cute villages and lovely countryside.

I wonder how many years until the town and MK are joined by houses?

Shame about the new development (with the continued problem of impossible onstreet parking and poor road layouts).

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

To be fair to the developers, the road designs are pretty much governed by the idealistic views of the local authorities who seem to think that putting narrow, winding roads will reduce traffic speed (correct) but then they insist on us using PPG3 schemes which basically means we have to create rear parking courts and most people (quite rightly) want to park near their front door, thus they park on the narrow, winding road.....
So whilst we developers are guilty of craming as many houses on the land as possible (because the land prices are sky high, we need to achieve a certain coverage to make it worthwhile developing the site) there are factors to the actual design of the development that are out of our hands.
Most local authorities will only allow us a parking allocation of 150% i.e. one and a half spaces per dwelling....

The Zohan

Interesting to see the other side of the coin.

Clarebabes

I knew about the 1.5 spaces stuff. I can only see that that would increase the value of my home as we have a 1.5 sized garage and parking for 3-4 cars.

I am a member of the Duston Action Group and they are doing their best. The guy who runs it lives in one of the really big expensive homes which were phase 1 at Crispin's - I think?

This is about Timken, Dallington Heath and St Crispin's Paul. It will not stop there - the Upton development will border onto Kislingbury and be built on major flood plain! Went for a walk through there not too long back and the houses would be under 2-3 foot of water!

I think it's disgusting that these plans are basically signed and sealed before anyone's had the opportunity to object.

LG John

That's all very well but as I understand it its not the developer that pays for the demands of the planning system but rather the landowner. It's my understanding that a developer usually secures an option on the land complete with many clauses and then works back its valuation by calculating the final sale price less cost of build, the costs of planning, cost of fees, 20-25% profit, contingencies, etc, etc. What is left is what they can afford to pay for the land and if the land owner says no the developer moves on. Of course, most developers work to similar margins and rules so the landowner is faced with not being able to sell to a developer and he probably won't be able to develop it himself for a number of reasons (capital costs, economies of scale, etc). Therefore its usually in his/her best interests to dispose of the land even if it is for less than they had hoped.

In short, planning f*cks farmers

LG John

They aren't signed and sealed before anyone has a chance to object. These sites are nearly always allocated in the development plan on which there is significant advertising and public consultation. The problem is that most people don't care about the development plan, because its boring, and aren't overly worried because the don't get a letter through the door saying 'Mr Miggins Development Co have applied for permission to build 2500 across the road'.

The chance to object is at the front end of the system where you could make written representation on the allocation in the plan or make representation at a Public Local Inquiry. Most people are reactive though and don't care about these things until actually faced with the prospect of an application and works commencing on site within the next year or so. Then the bolt upright, scream to the high-heavens but are, of course, too late.

This is perhaps plannings biggest challenge. Encouraging Joe Soap to take an active interested in, and participate in, planning at the front end. As I say above most Joe Soaps don't give a toss until someone digs up the field they walk their dog in and then its NIMBY, NIMBY, NIMBY.

Nimbus

I can understand this. I live in a small village (400 odd people) and we have a very active social/village community. We are lucky that one of the residents is very pro-active when it comes to matters with council. We've had quite a few meetings where he has explained to the villagers what the local plan is, how it effects us and what we can do if we want to change anything. This means there are no surprises and we all get a chance to object to proposal in plenty of time to actually do anything about it (if we wanted to object of course).

It's a sad fact of modern living that this community spirit is lacking in most areas now and therefor unless people choose to go through the steps you mention above themselves, it's unlikely they will find these things out.

Clarebabes

I agree with Saxo Boy to a great extent. There is much talk about what they're planning to do, but no one I know has objected. That's why I joined the action group so they would have the resources to object on my behalf.

It is really sad. We're going to lose so many green spaces in Northampton that the only place kids will see farmer's fields is in books or on TV. We can never reclaim it once it's built on!

LG John

Of course it doesn't help that we are reluctant to build up. Everyone (myself included admittedly) want the detached 3-4 bedroom house with good gardens, en-suite and integral garage! We really should be building at much higher densities though.

Clarebabes

I suppose what we do, and it is our culture, is to strive for the biggest house we can afford, regardless of whether we need it. I do think that single people living on their own have to share some of the blame. They want a 2 bed house when really one bed would suffice.

Other countries don't have this problem, but then again, they don't have the immigrant problems that we do either...

DCI Gene Hunt

What size house do you have Citizen Smith?

Clarebabes

I didn't say I was holier than thou

We have a 4 bed...

A 2 bed would suffice I suppose, but then I may have 3 more kids

DCI Gene Hunt

Look Clarebabes, I said I "liked you"..... that's ^^^ a pretty big assumption!

MattW

Interesting stuff. Always thought that you must have 2 spaces per house, which may mean garage and p/s. A lot of the new stuff in Swindon is parking courts and such like, one road I can think of has a terrible parking/access problem as people park outside. The pavement must be 15 foot wide so you would think someone would have common sense.

The place we have just bought is part of a development planned and half developed several years ago so we managed to get a double garage, however that is now unusual, even some 5 beds have allocated parking!!

We are overlooking an SSSI so hope that it stays that way, one day i expect it will get built on though

Luan Pra bang

Yes there is a new housing developement close to you and it immigrants fault as always blame the immigrants. The part that baffles me is why people think they have a right to decide what happens to land they don't own. They buy imported ****e from tesco make farming a completely un-ecomical thing to do in the UK and then complain when the farmer deicdes to get some use out of useless land. Ultimately this country needs massive housing development There needs to be loads more houses and they have to go some where if you don't want them near you then buy the land yourself and know one can build on it.