Author: Cyril Richert
Following the rejection by the government inspector of Wandsworth Council’s planning policy submission, a new series of documents were open to comments until Friday 28th November 2014.
The Clapham Junction Action Group has submitted a representation, mostly responding to the previous response to the 2013 consultation (our previous participation is HERE).
Our introductory letter says:
“I am writing to you regarding the consultation on the Local Plan, 2nd proposed submission version (CS, DMPD and SSAD) submitted by the Council.
You will find attached the comments made by the Clapham Junction Action Group regarding the series of documents, most of them being specific to the area of Clapham Junction.
As we commented in 2013, we consider that most of our comments are still valid.
As usual, we noticed (and regret) that most of the comments made by the residents, groups and societies have been rejected or ignored in your responses to the 2013 consultation on planning policy; it questions, once more, the purpose of the full process, other than ticking the right box at the right time.
We have little hope that any more consideration will be given regarding concerns of the local residents. And we believe that the same feeling is shared by all the other Societies in Wandsworth. In itself, not addressing that issue is showing the poor consideration given by Wandsworth council to the consultation process, which is only therefore fulfilling its statutory duties.
We also understand that this general opinion was reflected by the response addressed to the Wandsworth Society by Paul Martin, Chief Executive and Director of Administration, on the 17th of July 2014: “I had thought that the press statement that the Council released within days of our letter set out the Council’s position”. And surely he couldn’t ignore the fact that this statement was calling Societies and residents groups in Wandsworth NIMBYs who “choose to hurl false and groundless allegations around”.
Therefore, although you might consider that this representation is another response hurling false and groundless allegations, we wish to add our comments to the review that will be made by the government inspector.
Yours sincerely“
Our comments consider that neither the Core Strategy, the Development Management Policies Document and the Sites Specific Allocations Document are effective and justified. Therefore they are unsound.
We consider that the wording of the policies is an open door to all understanding and misuse by the Council to justify any planning development. We have already numerous examples where factual breach of policies is balanced with subjective “overall benefit” in Wandsworth planning reports. Those statements have no place in the document and must be removed for the policy to become effective.
>>> You can download and read our submission HERE.
