Healthy pursuits in the open country.

An application has been submitted to B&NES Council by one of our members for a Village Green to be registered under the Commons Act 2006 - Section 15(1) on the Newbridge Meadows.

The land concerned is “that land predominantly to the northeast of Newbridge Park and Ride and known as Newbridge Meadows in Newbridge Bath.”

Notices have been posted at 10 sites at least adjoining the land with a Map attached showing clearly the area required to be registered.

The object of submitting this application is to preserve the Meadows for this and future generations to use for lawful pastimes such as dog walking, nature observations and the study and enjoyment of the environment.

It has been used for these purposes since 1940 and almost certainly before that date to the present time.

As you know there are very few suitable areas adjoining the city for dog walking and such like activities and, we need to preserve them.

If the application is successful, then the land would be preserved as now for ever more.

We hope that you will support this application by writing letters of support as soon as possible addressed to Mr Graeme Stark of Bath and North East Somerset Council, Riverside, Temple Street, Keynsham, BA31 1LA.

Your letters are really important to add weight to the application and result in success.

Any objections to this proposal must be sent to the Council on or before 19 July 2010.

Country walks may be a lost pursuit.

The Secretary of State has given notice that he proposes to make an Order under Section 24 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 - Section 247, to authorise the Diversion and Stopping up of various Public Footpaths in Newbridge in order to accommodate the BRT scheme including the Park and Ride Car Park extension.

We are opposed to this and many have sent in objections to the Secretary of State as a result of which he has called for a Public Inquiry [PI] to be held.

Monday 14 June 2010….. Guildhall Bath at 10.00am.

Please note that this is the same day and time as for the proposed CPO Pre-Inquiry.

As anyone can attend we encourage you to do so, in order to show our strength of feeling concerning the diversion and loss of certain Public Footpaths.

Update on Compulsory Purchase Orders.

Following on from the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) Public Inquiry (PI) statutory and non statutory objectors posting on Thursday 18 February 2010, the situation would appear to be that the CPO PI inspector will decide upon who can speak at the PI.

He is likely to make that decision at the Pre-Inquiry meeting.

The diary for the CPO PI events at the moment reads:-

Tuesday 1st June 2010…..latest date for return of Questionnaire to Helen Wilson, Programme Officer for the CPO PI.
Some of you may have received this Questionnaire on which you are requested to state whether you will be attending the Pre-Inquiry CPO meeting and also answer other questions.
Monday 14 June 2010…..CPO Pre-Inquiry meeting to be held at the Guildhall Bath at 10.00am.
We have ascertained that ANYONE can attend the Pre-Inquiry or actual Inquiry and we encourage you to attend to show your strength of feeling about the BRT/BTP, even if you are not intending to speak or attend further meetings.
Wednesday 11 August 2010….latest date for receipt of “Proof of Evidence” regarding the CPOs by the Inspector, or a date to be fixed by him at the Pre-Inquiry.
If you wish to appear at the actual CPO Inquiry you must confirm this on the Questionnaire.
Wednesday 1 September 2010…..CPO PI meeting to be held at the Guildhall Bath at 10.00am.

We are sure that you will have noted the cuts that the Government are proposing in public expenditure this year, a cut of £683m being for the Department of Transport alone out of a total of £6.2bn.

This country is £150bn in debt and the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said today on BBC TV “The enormity of the black hole on public finance is far worse than we anticipated.”

The Budget will be held in June with a Spending Review in the autumn.

Under these conditions it would seem that B&NES Council may well not be granted the necessary finance to carry out their BRT / BTP schemes and, we think that the CPO Pre-Inquiry and PI should be postponed until a clear situation arises concerning finance.

We are sure that it would be considered to be acting irrationally to spend many thousands of pounds of public money on Inquiries with very little hope of the schemes proceeding in the near future.

If you are of the same opinion as many readers are, we urge you to write or E mail without delay, a request for the Pre-Inquiry and actual Inquiry to be postponed until the Government’s financial position is made clearer and whether any “Grant Money” is likely to be made available for the BRT / BTP schemes. Ask for your request to be forwarded to any other person or authority as necessary.

You should address your request to:

Mrs Helen Wilson BA (Hons)
Programme Officer for the Public Inquiry
32 Pennyford Close
Brockhill,
Redditch
B97 6TW
email: progofficer@aol.com

Tel/Fax: 01527 65741

Mobile: 07879 443035

Thank you for waiting.

Hello again everyone !

Sorry for the delay, which was due to family illness, but we are now able to continue.

Please bear with us - more to follow ............

Temporary lapse

Sorry, due to serious illness we have been unable to update this site recently. Hope to be back on the case soon.

CPO pubic inquiry: statutory and non-statutory objectors

On Saturday 6 February 2010 those who had written to register their objections to the CPOs connected with the BTP received a pack of papers and a disc of supporting documents from the Department of Transport (DfT) via the Government Office for the North East (GoNE).

Included within the Statement of Case document is a table of objectors. Last year we received legal advice on how objectors are classified which quoted Government guidelines that state:

"…Objectors fall into two categories. A statutory objector is a person who has objected within the stipulated time frame and is:

i) an owner, lessee, occupier or tenant of land within the CPO; or
ii) a person who may have the right to claim compensation either because:
a) they own rights in the land being acquired and these will be interfered with; or
b) the value of their land will or may be reduced as a result of works carried out on the land being compulsorily acquired.

Any other objector, e.g. a third party objector is known as a non-statutory objector. Only a statutory objector has the right to be heard at the Public Inquiry and the Minister is only obliged to hold an Inquiry if there are statutory objectors.”

We were dismayed to see that contrary to the above B&NES has only included those whose land or property is subject to a CPO as a statutory objectors everyone else has been mis-classified as non-statutory objectors even though they clearly fall under section b) of the guidelines.
Naturally we contacted GoNE and asked them to clarify this position. The most recent explanation we have received effectively informs that B&NES decide who is or isn't a statutory objector. We do not accept this, as we understand a public inquiry to be an independent procedure and therefore are perplexed as to how it can be left to B&NES to decide such a fundamental point.
 
From the Newbridge P&R extension perspective there are 28 addresses listed under ‘objections’, of these there are a number that have more than one name attached to the same address (42 company/residents names listed). Of the 28 there are two statutory objectors and 26 non statutory objector addresses. From the non statutory addresses it would appear that all 26 could be classed as statutory objectors under the government guidelines as described above, but certainly 23 addresses would fall into that category. There are only three objectors that might fall into a grey area. In addition, one of the businesses subject to a CPO is not listed anywhere although we have been told they have not entered into any agreement with B&NES.

Updates, updates...

Apologies for the absence of posts. Be assured much has been happening and we have attempted to bring you up to date on all the different areas (see above). We appreciate this is complicated, but stick with it and hopefully we will be able to stop the ill founded and unsustainable transport plans B&NES Council is forcing onto us.