Councillor Corner Debbie Brock
Niinerals Plan
We mentioned last month that the draft Minerals local plan was open for consultation. This was the first stage in developing a plan that as a mineral extracting authority, Milton Keynes has a duty to do. The first stage is to determine what level of minerals Milton Keynes needs to extract and then to decide on which areas extraction should take place. The Minerals Local Plan is not planning permission and any site put forward will still need to be granted planning permission at a later date. The plan spans at least 1 5 years so is an important document for guiding where future extraction should take place. As part of letting people know, a number of events were organised for the area including one at Lathbury 3rd December and Weston Underwood on the 9th December. Both meetings were well attended with people giving their views and also learning a lot about the process of the scheme and the proposals. This is not the last time that people can come and find out about the proposals, another meeting has been organised in Lavendon on 9thJanuary. This will be a public exhibition of the plans from 5:30pm with a meeting where people can make their views clear at 7:30pm. The consultation closes on the 22nd January and the responses will then be considered with the plan then passing through further stages overthe next 18 months before finally being agreed during the summer of 2015. We
will of course keep you updated on progress as it happens
If you wish to make any comments about the scheme or learn more about it, feel free to come along to the next consultation meeting in Lavendon or look on the Milton Keynes Council Website.
Road Junction Consulta on In Olney
Since the traffic review of Olney over 5 years ago Milton Keynes Council has been gradually undertaking the priorities that came forward in that review.
One such scheme was the redesigning of the junction at Yardley Road and the High Street, the other was the redesigning of the Weston Road/ High Street South junction. We mentioned the consultation evening in last months article, where people could come along to look at the proposals and make comments so these could be taken into account with the schemes before and if they progressed.
The evening was extremely busy with many peopleattendingandgivingtheirviewswhich were mixed about the schemes. These will now be taken into account and changes made before the final decision is made as to whether they should be progressed or not. If they are progressed then it is likely that they will be done in the Spring.
The Salt Box, Lavendon
We have mentioned in this column a number of times the Saltbox site and the controversial planning application that was submitted for 9 houses to be built on the site. This application came before the Development Control
Committee in early December. In the run up to this we sought views from local people about what they wished the site to become. At the public meeting we held, the overwhelming majority supported development on the site provided that safeguards could be put in place to limit the development to just the current low density proposal. The danger was that this could just be the first in a number of applications to get more houses on the site. After this meeting the developer did offer those guarantees that are now linked to the deeds of the property held at the Land Registry which will restrict any future development. The danger of not doing this was that the site would be sold and then someone else would try again and again and again until something was granted. Some people were worried that this site would grant a precedent for other sites in the local area. The Development Control Committee were very clear on the reasons that they were granting this application and they include that it was a brown field site, was on a bus route, had been previously developed and had planning permission for use a builders yard as well as the fact that it was adjacent to the settlement boundary of the village.
This was not the last part of the application as now a detailed planning application will be forthcoming which will look to decide the exact design of the houses. Our very best wishes for a happy & peaceful New Year, if we can assist you in anyway please feel free to contact us on the details given on at our surgery which takes place on January 3rd at the Olney Centre from 7.30-8.30pm.
    32 Phonebox Magazine
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