Will
the new town centre have porous pavements? Friday the 13th Courant's
lead letter is from Jennifer McGee on the subject of drainage. Her
points are not new, she dates the various occurences. The problem and I
tend to agree with her: what is being done about the matter apart from a
style of development whose track record
makes these issues worse? We were promised a study in November 2011,
where is it? Porous pavements are one 21st century solution to the
problem. They cost more money I guess, will we get them? The new
development promises a surge tank, Castlefield's has them and they have
failed. If you are for the new development why not take time out and
explain how it is going to help Prudhoe's flooding problem? What other
drainage improvements (not maintenance which really amounted to the
South Road incident last year? are likely? How will the Station "sump"
be sorted? RF
Neil Bradbury
The groundwater flows on the site will be diverted from the Castlefields system where they have caused problems and instead into the Station road surface system, which will be rebuilt where necessary. All of this is part of the 82 special conditions imposed on the development by Councillors. I am not sure any level of reassurance will convince Cllr McGee, who has a massive conflict of interest with her family ownership of McGees. Her real objection, perfectly understandably, is the demolition of the block where her families shop is.
Robert Forsythe
I appreciate the clear statement about the Station Road sewage system and how that will be rebuilt. Regarding McGee's shop. A clear statement over who owns what would clarify a lot of things about Prudhoe. Nonetheless Neil, my belief is that Mrs McGee is not as closely connected to that shop in question as you suggest. I think Jennifer will as likely as not read this post and a clear clarification about how far her personal interest is from the business in question would be fine. Like I say, I am ready to discover it is not as close as at first imagined.
5 hours ago · · 1
Adrian Porter I understand the furinture unit on Princessway has been flooded again yet the unit is still up for rent how can the landlord rent this building out knowing it is suseptable to flooding,have they got to tell any interested persons.
Robert Forsythe
I think there is a serious issue of transparency in this. I accept that there are 82 planning conditions intended to safeguard this development. I would be very surprised if from this town of 12500 people anyone could produce more than 10 people who were able from memory to itemise say 20 of those conditions. What this says is that the town needs a reference point now that three plus weeks have passed since the decision. I know that if I blutter my way through the planning website I can find much of this stuff. But if those for this development wanted to make friends of their neighbours and this community they would have a website accessible 24/7 setting out in plain English the main features of what is going on. (They did a consultation last summer and I cannot find any results). I have been suggesting this through my blog for several years now and I find it odd that those who want this development are not much more pro-active in trying to show why it is benefiical and offering a FAQ which deals with the difficult questions. The lack of this then leads one to the thought, does the Duke's estate and others behind the scheme really WANT us to know what is being planned? And now implementation follows permission, the need for such a site is really important. It may even convert at some point to an empty shop becoming a development info point.
Neil Bradbury The developers will do what they need to do to make it happen and nothing more. People might not like that but they are businessmen
Robert Forsythe that may be so but it up to politicians to press them to do much more and to make sure that the community gets what it needs.
Adrian Porter I think we can only wait and see and trust the people we voted in to makesure the development is the best for Prudhoe we can get.
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