Update From Menston Forum Tuesday 8th March

There will be no Public Enquiry with regard to the Bingley Road site because the developers have withdrawn. Outline planning permission does exist for the site so we will have to wait to see what happens next.

All legal objections to the Chartford Homes site were dismissed. This development may now go ahead subject to conditions being met and approved, so it is likely there will be more meetings of Planning Committees!

The Derry Hill site Judicial Review based upon the crux of “Sustainable drainage principles” will be heard at a full-day hearing at the Court of Appeal before 3 judges on the 12/13^th of July.

Most recently, thanks to the support of Philip Davies MP.

David Rhodes and Councillor Dale Smith met with Rory Stewart MP (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs) on Monday 8 Feb at his offices in Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, SW1P 3JR to present David’s detailed thoughts, calculations and suggestions with regard to ground-water flooding and its mitigation.

Councillor Dale Smith reports that they had a cordial meeting and submitted full details of David’s proposals which met with considerable interest. As a consequence Rory did agree that the issue deserved further close scrutiny and we are presently waiting for the date when we might return to London and meet in more depth with his experts and officials and discuss the responsibility of the Environment Agency and the statutory responsibility of Water Authorities.

Please sign this petition

A PETITION TO GIVE LOCAL COUNCILS THE RIGHT TO APPEAL PLANNING DECISIONS

The following message has been received from the Yorkshire Local Councils Association: The lack of an appeal mechanism for local councils in the planning process has caused difficulties for a long time.  This petition states that the planning system is unfair and is one of the few decision-making processes that gives no right of appeal to affected third parties. It calls on the Government to introduce a limited third party right of appeal by giving parish councils a right to appeal planning decisions to the Planning Inspectorate. As your Council will be aware, under current rules, if a local planning authority refuses a planning application the applicant is allowed to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. If a planning authority approves an application, no one has the right to appeal. With the national presumption in favour of sustainable development throwing the planning system into disarray, in the interest of justice, the petition says that Government should give local councils the right to appeal planning decisions. The petition needs to receive 10,000 signatures for the Government to respond.  At the time of notifying Yorkshire parishes there were 3,900 signatures and as this is an issue that our member councils have we hope that your Council (and individual councillors) will be able to contribute. The deadline for signatures is 19 April, 2016 and the petition can be accessed at:

Click here to go to the petition site