From The Hampshire Chronicle:
VILLAGERS near Winchester were furious after the city council gave the green light to a controversial plan to provide more affordable housing. Residents of Twyford were upset after the city council on Monday (Dec 20) approved plans to build 40 homes in The Bourne and Northfields area.
Twyford Parish Council had opposed the plan since 2009, claiming The Bourne area was already too densely populated and the nearby B3335 road was dangerous for residents as it did not have a pedestrian crossing. (1)
Waine Lawton, chair of the parish council, said: “We are disappointed that, with the considerable opposition and concerns of the local residents, greater credence has not been given to the new government policy of localism. We recognise development is needed in the area but we feel this development is too intense. We feel the area will be over dense.” (2)
Parish Cllr Chris Corcoran, of Finches Lane, Twyford, said: “How can Winchester promote the blueprint exercise and say they are going to listen to local people? Here local people told them comprehensively what they want and they are being totally ignored. (3) The road is one of the busiest B roads in Hampshire (4) and it goes right through the village. What other village in Hampshire has that without a proper footpath?” (5)
During this period, Jonathan Humphrey, the applicant, made a further financial contribution to the council of just over £40,000 to provide funding for a pedestrian crossing for the road. (6) Councillors said the extra contribution and the site visit had addressed their concerns over the scheme before unanimously approving it.
1) These people don't have the gumption to set up a couple of zebra crossings?
2) Dense? Look at the map below and make up your own mind.
3) Ah, The New Localism. They don't need a computer to say "No".
4) OK, declare it an A road and it will be one of the least travelled A roads in Hampshire.
5) See (1) above.
6) See (1) above, clearly this guy did.
NB - the average price of a semi detached house in Twyford, Hampshire appears to be over £300,000. No more than £100,000 of that will be actual rebuild cost/value and the other £200,000 is scarcity value.
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No wonder he's never around
4 minutes ago
7 comments:
Presumably Jonathan Humphrey - got his way through bribery then?
JJ, it is called "Section 106 agreements" and is perfectly legal (even if morally dubious). And there's nothing to stop the NIMBYs offering to pay even bigger bribes (or pay for the zebra crossing themselves, or make the council do it).
"2) Dense? Look at the map below and make up your own mind."
I think "densely populated" means "there are houses there already" and "overdense" means "more houses than there are there already", in NIMBY speak. I expect "sparsely populated" means "the other side of the hill, where we don't care".
B, exactly. As the man says: "We recognise development is needed in the area but we feel this development is too intense."
I was at school in Winchester and it is certainly not dense. Going back now I am amazed at the size of the houses and how cheap they are compared to London.
We used to go running along the B3335 and there was enough of a footpath then as far as I can remember.
EKTWP, we are not talking of the concrete jungle that is Winchester, we are talking Twyford which is a couple of miles out.
As to the pavement, this is a time dilation thing. As joggers move faster than pedestrians, the pavement seems wider to joggers. If you walk slowly enough it ceases to exist.
"NB - the average price of a semi detached house in Twyford, Hampshire appears to be over £300,000."
I'd say! My great-grandparents lived in Twyford, the house they lived in has been split into flats and the flats cost more than £300,000 each. It's amazing what you can find out via Google these days.
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