PROTEST DAY, WESTMINSTER 30 JUNE 2008

Last Monday (30/7/08) approximately 30 people from Weston and the surrounding villages assembled in Westminster Square  together with groups from other parts of the UK. The protest was good natured and noisy and the press were out in force and there were lots of interviews and photo shots.

Grant Shapps the Tory shadow housing minister addressed the crowd and he was well received. s

There was a meeting afterwards in one of the Parliament Committee Rooms where Grant Shapps and other fellow MPs representing other groups addressed a large gathering of over 200 people. Grant Shapps reiterated the Tory viewpoint that there is undoubtedly a housing need across the spectrum of demand but sites need to be carefully considered and need to have full local consensus.  Large scale settlements should be on Brownfield land of which there is a plentiful supply in this country if the will is there. Greenfield sites are the easy quick fix option. The Tories will shut down any other attempt at mass housing that does not fulfil these criteria.

Two to three people from each protest group were then invited to meet Caroline Flint at 3 o’clock. Tony Henman and Norman Machin were able to speak to Henry Cleary (Chairman of DCLG) before the meeting started and Tony repeated his request for a reply to our freedom of information letter which is now time expired and Tony again asked Henry Cleary for a copy of the briefing note for specialists as “the answer is often in the question”. Henry Cleary admitted he hadn't done anything about this since the last request put in place at the Cherwell meeting some weeks ago but he promised to act. He was handed a copy of our, hopefully, reasoned  overview and objection statement and we were able to point out to him the list of parishes on page 1 and remind him that he had promised to hold a wider range of departmental consultation meetings with the parishes affected. The Cherwell meeting was only attended by four parishes by exclusive invitation. He promised to timetable a further set of meetings and keep us informed.

The Caroline Flint meeting was rushed and unstructured. She declared the now familiar mantra of housing need, under provision, affordable homes, etc. The tone of the meeting was one of dissent with particular regard to secrecy and lack of communication. Various groups spoke under pressure and hurriedly, picking up components that affect them specifically and picking up components that affect all groups. A common thread was again the secrecy of the process and a lack of information, the speed with which the matter is being fast tracked, greenfield sites, poor communication links and the affect on local communities.

Tony Henman was able to ask a specific question on greenbelt and the development of greenbelt and he robustly challenged her on her earlier statement that “there would be no building on greenbelt”. This has latterly been modified to “there will no houses built on greenbelt” but in her opinion that did not now preclude significant infrastructure as at Weston Otmoor and namely railway infrastructure and station and the 6,000 place car park with other hard standings and service areas. Tony Henman was insistent and challenged what is now a highly selective form of words but he was brushed aside. They were able to ask a question about status and timing of a site specific PPS. She batted sideways to Henry Cleary who at the end of the meeting gave a totally ambiguous answer. The answer was vested in the terms of “normal planning procedure” with a strong implication that schemes would go through Local Authorities and be determined but a powerful viewpoint is that a site specific PPS will be difficult to resist by Local Authorities and would be expressly accepted by any inspector chairing a public inquiry. He also implied that Local Authorities with a robust LDF may be spared a PPS. As an aside here, Cherwell have only had a provisional local plan since 1996 and the LDF is not likely to be finalised until the end of this year or early next.

When challenged about timing and process Caroline Flint used words like “early days yet”, “all components of plans will be tested by the 12 man challenge panel and by the DCLG appointed consultants put in place”. It is unlikely that the second short list will be published much before the end of the year or even early next year. There was a strong implication that it is early days and anything could happen.

The meeting in our view was rushed, garbled, unstructured and in parts quite theatrical. Caroline Flint declared rather than debated points. I tried to speak to Henry Cleary at the end of the meeting but he left swiftly.

In conclusion, the protest day was a success, we were able to meet other people with a very common agenda and whilst we have not particularly felt isolated, it was good to hear the same viewpoints from likeminded colleagues with the same problem. Grant Shapps’ meeting with his colleague and protesters was excellent and obviously with a common agenda. The Caroline Flint meeting was useful in part but would have benefitted from being longer.