Earl Shilton Action Group

31st March 2009

A further meeting of the group was held last night to bring everyone up to speed with progress concerning the objection letters. A summary of the meeting is on the 'Information and Newsletter' page. The consultation period ends next Monday 6th April at 5pm so there is still time to make sure you get your objection letter in to the Council Offices by that time for it to count. A Group letter has been sent also and a copy is on the 'Sample Letters' page.

4th March 2009

A local development framework presentation was held last night at Heathfield High School. Tracey Darke, who is a senior officer within the Hinckley & Bosworth planning department, guided those present through the Local Development Framework's Site Allocations for Earl Shilton and Barwell. This included both future building development intentions and travellers' sites. For a summarised report and opinions please go to the 'Information & Newsletter' page.

9th February 2009

The Core Strategy consultation period starts today. All written objections will be counted in the debate about allocations for travellers' sites. So it is important that you get in your objection letter as soon as possible.

We have put a couple of letters on the Sample Letters page to help with the arguments and will be scanning a copy of our own Town Council's objection letter into the Sample Letters too so that you can see how our Councillors have tackled it.

A schedule of presentation workshops and booking information is included on the When & Where page. You will see that the one for this area is to be held at Heathfield High School on the evening of 3rd March. Get booked in and have your say in the discussion sessions. This will not take the place of any public meetings which may be necessary afterwards.

3rd February 2009

IMPORTANT - CONSULTATION PERIOD MONDAY 9th FEBRUARY to MONDAY 6th APRIL

Please go to the When & Where page to see a schedule of the meetings and drop in sessions organised for the coming consultation period. It is important that your views are made known during the 8 week period starting 9th February and we have posted a couple of letters on the Sample Letter page which you can use for reference purposes, or to copy and paste for a ready made letter to HBBC.

The following should really be posted on the Information page but I thought, given that it's very good news, you might appreciate it on the first page you see!!

20^th January 2009. Council Meeting at Argents Mead 6-30pm

I think I’ll tackle the report on last night’s Council Meeting by starting at the end, because that’s what you’ll be most interested in. After rumour and counter-rumour the following actually happened -

Yet another amendment to the travellers’ sites preferred options list was put forward for the Council to consider. This amendment removed Earl Shilton from the list and so, my friends, for the time being at least, I am very happy to report that no travellers’ sites will be seen near our Town – anywhere!! Forgive me if I seem a little subdued over this, but I suppose it’s a bit difficult to take in. We have organised ourselves, and in a short space of time have seen our strongly held and voiced objections actually agreed with by HBBC. Can’t help feeling I may have missed something!!

It is a fact that Earl Shilton has been dropped from the preferred list of sites for travellers – there are 9 sites proposed across the Borough – but there is always the chance that it could make the list again in the future if problems arise regarding any of the 9 preferred options. This is maybe a pessimistic view but is still technically possible. No doubt the local press will fill in the details about the other sites later in the week.

But what a roller coaster! Got there at 6-15pm only to find that the Council Chamber was full and there were about 100+ people standing outside in the cold. The outside crowd was good humoured despite having cold extremities, and chants, placards, banners etc made the evening entertaining! The Groby residents (106 in 2 coach loads) carried everyone along with their slogans and everyone joined in.

We were told that an Official (brave person!) would come out and bring us up to date after the relevant Agenda item had been discussed and voted on. In the end this didn’t happen because the Council didn’t finish debating the item until about 9.15pm! Then they had to finish the meeting because they had overrun! Anyway by that time most of those that had waited around peacefully got into the Chamber, or at least into the front lobby where the proceedings were being shown on TV.

There is no doubt that the authorities overreacted somewhat in placing 6 police officers in our midst and yet more inside! This seemed particularly ironic given that we were there, to all intents and purposes, to let the Council know how concerned we were for the rule of law in our communities where travellers’ sites might cause us problems! The authorities must have realised that the Borough residents who were there, (law-abiding tax and licence payers to a man and woman) would police themselves!

Where do we go from here? Well the consultation period starts from 9^th February, a little later than originally decided, but goes on for an extended period of 8 weeks. In that time we must not, as a Town, rest on our laurels. There is still work to be done and we, on the Action Group, will continue to monitor the situation and keep you all as up to date as possible.

Letters still need to be sent to HBBC in order to formally register objections, although they obviously can’t be site specific.  Given a few days to rethink, we will post the arguments on the website, together with some new sample letters for you to use as you wish. For those of you, like us, who have already sent objections please be assured that your time has not been wasted. Undoubtedly the weight of public opinion has influenced this decision and will continue to do so.

To all those of you who volunteered to distribute leaflets – many thanks. There may be more to do in the not too distant future. 

Web Maester

...................................................................................................................................................................

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES