|
|
S.O.S!Older News26 April, 1999 SOS Key Events Calendar Fundraising: Friday 23rd April there will be a fashion show at 8pm, Scissett Club. The cost of entry is 50p. The raffle will be drawn on the 1st April and the winning tickets publicised in local shops. Thank you to all who donated. Public Meeting: Our next public meeting is on Monday 26th April at Scissett church, 7.30pm. We will be inviting a representative from Safeways/Oakes - will they dare come? We will also be providing an update on the campaign so far - please be there, the support last time was impressive. SCISSETT NEW TOWN NIGHTMARE For those of us who live in Scissett, Clayton West, Skelmanthorpe and many other surrounding villages, we have a big fight on our hands. Over the coming months a development group of three companies will try and force us to accept a new supermarket and 320 new houses. But that’s not all. Think of the fields that lie between Scissett and Emley. Imagine those packed with new houses and shops. Scissett New Town is the secret plan and the real nightmare we are fighting. And that’s why the Save Our Scissett (SOS) action group was formed - to make a stand against the outrageous plans that will wreck the way of life we all take for granted. The first battle is the most important. We have to stop the bullyboy developers (Oakes Estates and City Link Properties) and the supermarket chain (Safeway) gaining a foothold. They have spent over a year planning this development, yet have they ever talked to us? No. It appears that they prefer to hide behind Kirklees Council planning officers, letting them take the heat. They planned a public exhibition, but that was re-scheduled once they got wind of our objections. Now it’s been cancelled until some time in the future. The truth is they daren’t face us. They obviously daren’t show their faces in the very villages they want to destroy. But what they didn’t reckon on was SOS. Formed after people took to the streets to protest, we have already scored some victories. We have exposed the suspicious haste of the application. It’s almost as though they expected to walk in and begin without even worrying about what we thought. Talk to anyone connected with the application and they hint it’s a done deal. Quiet assurances had been given that it would go through. This makes us think that the application was done on the cheap, with none of the major impact studies on traffic, environment, or shops being completed on time, because it didn’t really matter. Who was going to object? Only now, some two months after the original application, are these vital reports being made available. Such was the arrogance of Safeways that they had signs up at their Dewsbury store saying they would open their new store in our area in 2000. Once again, the development group have shown their contempt for a planning procedure that is meant to listen to the voice of the people. But the residents and SOS are not so easily shrugged off. Now it comes down to a long and bitter struggle. But we have one major issue on our side. We know now that the plans are a definite deviation from the Council’s very own Unitary Development Plan. This is the council’s own bible on what will happen to Kirklees over the coming years. First drafted in 1994, it was only accepted this month. And the developer’s application goes against those plans. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? There are three main steps to come. First the application goes before the Sub-Committee Planning (Heavy Woollen Division). We have no date as yet, but with the local elections due in May, it seems likely that June’s meeting will be the councillors’ first opportunity to vote on the issue. If they vote yes, it has to go before the council’s full committee, which is likely to rubber stamp their sub-committee’s decision and depending on the meeting diary, and this could happen quite quickly. If the Sub-Committee say no, then we are still not out of the woods. The development team would likely appeal and give the council’s planners a hard time. But if the councillors say yes, and because it is a deviation from the UDP, it has to go before the Secretary of State. With the government taking a disapproving view of these out-of-proportion developments, then we are in with a good chance of sending them packing. We do not see how the Secretary of State can vote any other way but no. But one thing is for sure. SOS needs the continued support of the people in the area. It is likely to be a very long fight. We need massive funds when it comes to fighting the professionals and persuading the Secretary of State that we are right, and the developers are wrong. And there’s another thing you can count on. They are not going away. It will be a long fight. Whether it takes six months, a year, or five years, they will fight to the bitter end. A village like ours near Bolton fought a Barratts development for ten years and still lost. The developers are patient and have deep pockets. But everyone can rest assured, and that includes the developers, that no stone will be left unturned in this fight for our futures. SCISSETT BATHS - A Drop in the Ocean? The biggest joke in this whole affair is that Scissett Baths is about to be replaced by a leisure centre. Some people are thinking that means a spanking new pool with flumes and wave machines, just like the Metrodome in Barnsley. Not true. The developers have only said they will replace the existing pool with a new pool of the same size and with the same purpose. And why are the developers being so kind? Simply because the pool sits on the only real entrance to a site which is worth roughly £7.5m with planning permission for a supermarket and 320 new houses. And who do you think is really paying for the new pool? Yes, you’ve guessed it, we are. The money gained from the sale of the bath’s land to the developer will be used to build and fit the new pool. So, in reality the developer is not giving us anything at all. Few of us realise that Scissett Baths is ultimately owned by a charity controlled by commissioners in Liverpool. It was built in the 1920s by the Miners Welfare for £7,000. The miners of the day agreed to have money docked from their wages to pay for its running and upkeep. In the 1960s the baths were handed over to a charity run from Liverpool and the trustees became Kirklees Council. The beneficiaries of the charity are the residents of Scissett and Clayton West. So we are now in the bizarre situation of the trustees (the people who run the baths on a day-to-day basis - Kirklees Council) negotiating with itself, the very people who might approve the planning application to have them pulled down. Is this right and proper? Is there a danger that Kirklees Council, faced with a possible large bill to refurbish the existing baths, might be tempted to accept a planning application that goes against their own recommendations in the Unitary Development Plan, just to get out of paying for the pool? Are the development team offering our representatives a major incentive to overlook other matters? SOS need to be re-assured that this is not the case, that no behind-the-scenes deals are being struck which smell of unfair practices. SOS ACTION GROUP - The Committee The committee consists of around 12 residents of either Scissett, or Clayton West; people who either contribute specialist knowledge, or who just can spare the time to fight the developers. A list of members appears later in this newsletter. The meetings are held every fortnight, usually on a Wednesday at 6:30pm at Lindsay’s Cafe, people are welcome to attend and hear what is being said, offer any advice, or contribute in any way to the campaign, (telephone a member of the committee to get the date of the next meeting). The committee’s current work includes preparing a planning objection letter which is likely to run to some 50 pages of reasoned argument. The SOS planning team has had to wade through a mountain of official documents and plans in order to sort out the key arguments. Constant work is carried out to keep people aware of what is going on and organising the various public meetings and events that are due to be held in the near future. Fundraising is a key part of the committee’s activities, as there is a great need to raise enough money to take on the developers. Publicity is always a key concern of any action group and SOS has appeared numerous times in the local press and on the radio. It also had its march through Scissett and Clayton West featured on TV’s Calendar programme. This is just the start of a long struggle to defeat the development team and if anyone has a particular skill, or interest, then please come along. WAKEFIELD ROAD - A Motorway? If anyone thinks that Wakefield Road is busy now, wait until you have over 600 more cars, buses and huge delivery lorries going by day and night. With many households owning at least two cars, that means 320 houses will generate at least 640 cars more for poor Wakefield Road. Add to that the cars from outside the village using the supermarket, the increased number of buses to bring people to do their shopping and then the delivery lorries, you are quite literally creating urban chaos. And all this on a road that at rush hour resembles the M25. Over the years Kirklees Council have always refused planning permission for any scheme that affects Wakefield Road. Their own traffic department is well aware of the dangers of the busy highway that serves all the local villages. In 1995 a haulage firm was refused permission to create a turning space near the old station in Clayton West because Wakefield Road was deemed too busy. Ten years ago a small card shop in the middle of the village was refused permission on similar grounds. 20 years ago, when the traffic was considerably less than today, another site in the village was refused permission to become a cafe because once again, they feared lorries would block the road. And now, we face the prospect of dodging yet more cars, buses and lorries. Parents already dread home-time for the two Scissett schools when hundreds of children spill out onto the pavements. What will the scene be like in two years time? It seems that everyone knows that Wakefield Road is far too busy with today’s weight of traffic. Are the developers really asking us to believe that it will be no worse when Scissett village becomes Scissett town? The SOS Newtsletter The playing fields and agricultural land about to be ripped apart by the development team is home to a major colony of extremely rare Great Crested Newts. The newts in question have virtually disappeared in many parts of the world thanks to the thoughtless destruction of their habitats. People around the world are concerned about the fate of amphibians and even US President Bill Clinton has offered £5 million to help their survival. They are a highly protected species and Kirklees Council has an obligation to look after their needs. Such is their sensitive nature, that building work should not take place within 500 metres of their breeding grounds. So it will interesting to see how the development group and Kirklees Council can get around this particular problem. Anyone who would like to help protect and monitor the newts, please contact a member of the committee. SOS Candidates in Local Elections SOS are fielding four candidates for the Denby Dale Parish Council in the local elections on Thursday 6 May, 1999. Standing as SOS Independents, they are: Helen Gee for Scissett Christine Sykes for Scissett Sharon Gaunt for Scissett Josie Hall for Clayton West Iain Bowie for Clayton West Having SOS elected councillors will enable the action group to take the argument directly to the very heart of local government. The SOS candidates will begin campaigning at the next public meeting on Monday 26 April. SOS Committee Please contact a member of the committee if you want to attend our meetings, can offer help or want to discuss any of the points raised in this newsletter. Helen Gee Phone: 01484-865652 Fax: 01484-86565 Elizabeth Lawton Phone: 01484-863825 Neil Camp Phone: 01484-865392 Fax: 01484-860775 E-mail: neil_camp@email.msn.com Christine Sykes Phone: 01484-861700 Shop: 01484-865499 Josie Hall Phone: 01484-865664 Shop: 01484-866946 Louanne Craven Phone: 01484-862445 David Newby Phone: 01484-862766 Claire Long Phone: 01484-861272 Work: 0113-280-8052 David Collins E-mail: davidandang@hotmail.com Nick Rose Phone: 01924-830398 Greg Spence Phone: 01484-866972 7 April, 1999 VOTE S.O.S. INDEPENDENT S.O.S. are putting forward five of its Committee members for election onto the Parish Council: three for Scissett/Skelmanthorpe and two for Clayton West. They are independent and non-party political, and intend to represent your views, voting on local issues the way you want them to vote, not the way of any particular political party. They will be an ear on the Parish Council in order to get to hear of new building plans before it is too late! S.O.S. do not intend to disband – ever: not even when we defeat Safeway and the property developers. We intend to continue and fight any further unreasonable development plans in our villages. We need your support to do this. WE NEED YOUR VOTES ON MAY 6TH! **STOP PRESS** S.O.S. heard just before Easter of a proposed application to establish an open-cast mining site between Scissett and Bretton roundabout. Can you imagine the effect on the traffic levels on Wakefield Road? WE NEED TO FIGHT THIS. CANDIDATES FOR SCISSETT/SKELMANTHORPE HELEN GEE (Chairperson, S.O.S.) lives in Scissett, next to the site of the proposed Safeway supermarket car-park. CHRISTINE SYKES is the owner of the Snapdragon on Wakefield Road and so is readily accessible and available to listen to and meet the residents of Scissett. SHARON GAUNT lives on the Pennine estate and is the local printer in Scissett. CANDIDATES FOR CLAYTON WEST JOSEPHINE HALL lives in Clayton West and runs the Clayton Village Store, and so is readily available to the residents of the village. She wants to hear their views and then ensure that these are put forward in front of the Council. IAIN BOWIE lives in Riverside, Clayton West, which will be on the edge of the proposed housing development. All five of our candidates are keen, enthusiastic supporters of S.O.S. and are willing to fight to keep Scissett and Clayton West as the two villages they are today. We will not allow them to be turned into the beginnings of Scissett New Town! PLEASE VOTE INDEPENDENT S.O.S. ON MAY 6TH! 23 February, 1999 The protest march on Saturday 20th went off very well. Some 250 people turned up and set off from the Swimming Baths along Wakefield Road to Timbernest, turned up into Clayton West village, then via Church Street and Chapel Hill back onto Wakefield Road, up to the school turning circle and back to the Baths. We got some excellent media coverage - articles and pictures in the Yorkshire Post and The Examiner, and a slot on Saturday evening's Calendar programme. We now have an SOS Hotline - up-to-the-minute news will be posted on 0900 981 1632 (calls cost 25p per minute) so you can also ring in to found out what's happening. The Recreation Ground The committee has been made aware that there is a way of ensuring that the recreation ground in not built on come what may. In other words, the rec. can be retained for all time! Before we can secure this, we need to be able to show conclusively that the recreation ground has been used for this purpose for a period of at least twenty years. So, if you can remember using it all those years ago - or taking your children to play on it - then please let the committee members know. Only names and contact telephone numbers/addresses are needed at this stage. Old photographs of people using the rec. would be especially welcome and useful. (You'll find telephone numbers for the committee members on the Contacts page). Our MP Several people had a meeting with our local MP, David Hinchliffe, on Friday 5th February. He was very interested and gave a clear promise of support and assistance. He's already following up on certain points put to him. He is interested to hear from anyone on this matter and suggests people write to him at the House of Commons (it's a quick and easy way to get in touch). The address is: David Hinchliffe MP, House of Commons, Westminster, London Letters of Objection If you are against the developers' intentions of turning Scissett into an anonymous, over-populated dormitory and haven't personally objected yet please do so. Getting your voice heard will make a difference and ensure Kirklees officials, the Planning Committee, not to mention Safeways and Oakes, realise that this is an issue which is not going to go away, and will be pursued until these plans are thrown out. Write to the Planning Officer or the Chair of the Planning Committee: ideally both, but either one will be of great help to the cause. The address is: Mr. Hopwood, Planning Dept., Civic Centre III, Upperhead Row, Huddersfield Do please quote the following planning reference on any letters you send: 99/60/90179E7. If you do not want to write your own letter, then please collect and sign one of the pre-prepared ones that are available in local shops. Get Involved! Please attend all the marches and meetings. If you sit back and let the planners have a free rein, they will change your way of life, whether it be through increased traffic, loss of local retailers, the effect on our local schools, health provision or the 'atmosphere' of your community. Pop down to Scissett cafe on Wakefield Road and have a look at the complete plans. You will probably be amazed and appalled at what is being proposed. Every voice is important and every person who objects, in any way, is helping protect our community. A Likely Sequence of Events? In response to a letter on our behalf from a friendly lawyer, Mr. John Emms (Solicitor to the Council) sent quite a long reply. The following quote from near the end of his letter is of intense interest: "You may also be aware that since this application constitutes a departure from the UDP (Unitary Development Plan - Ed.), the Council is not in a position to make an instant decision. The procedure would be that the application would first be considered by the Planning (Heavy Woollen) Sub-Committee. If that sub-committee then decided that it was minded to grant the application, it would be referred to the full Planning and Economic Development Committee with an appropriate recommendation. If that committee then confirmed that recommendation, the application would have to be referred to the Secretary of State who would decide whether or not to call in the application for decision, rather than leave it to the Local Authority to make the decision. This would, of course, give your clients the opportunity to make further representations, it (sic) we ever get to that stage." Be prepared for the long haul. This,of course, may be the developers' plan - to wear us down and outlast us! HELP NEEDED! (A). We have two or three people working on a formal document of objection to the whole planning application. This is a surprisingly enormous task, requiring a great deal of research, and is absolutely key to a successful campaign. We clearly and urgently need further volunteers to come forward who can offer professional expertise in areas related to town and country planning, especially if they have had dealings with local authorities. (B). There are limits to how far we can take advantage of our friendly solicictor's generosity! Are there any legal eagles out there, or do you know of any whose arm you can twist, willing to offer some professional help? 7 February, 1999 The next public demonstration will be a protest march on Saturday 20th February. This will start and finish at Lindsey's Cafe, Wakefield Road, and follow a circular route through Clayton West and Scissett. Start time is 12 noon and there are provisional plans to finish with a street barbecue. The next SOS Committee meeting will be on Saturday 13th February - 4pm at Lindsey's Cafe, Wakefield Road. 3 February, 1999 SOS: Welcomes Councillors' Decision to Defer Judgement and Plan Special Meeting Over 300 People Lobby Parish Council Meeting Planning Office Confusion Over Statutory Notices The Save Our Scissett (SOS) action group welcomed the decision on Tuesday 2 February by Denby Dale Parish Council to defer its judgement on the Wakefield Road planning application as councillors expressed their severe reservations and need for further information. SOS also welcomed the Council's plan to hold a special meeting of the Parish Council to discuss the proposed development, at which they would invite senior planning officers from Kirklees Council to attend. SOS is also concerned that due to the arrival of further plans at the Planning Department on Tuesday 2 February, showing the extent of the housing development and a crucial part of the application, site notices have yet to be posted on Wakefield Road, some 13 days after the application was officially received on 21 January, 1999. Over 300 good-natured protesters stood outside the council offices in Skelmanthorpe and chanted "Save Our Scissett" and "Down with Safeways". Some 20 representatives of SOS were allowed into the Civic Chamber to hear the Councillors' discussion. The first phase of the proposed development (number 99/60/90179/E7) involves a Safeways supermarket and new swimming pool to be built on Scissett playing fields and agricultural land, followed by 320 new houses. Helen Gee, Joint Chairperson, says: "Once again the support from the local community was superb. To have such a crowd on a cold winter's evening demonstrates people's overwhelming rejection of these plans. We believe that the Parish Council is as concerned as we are that the application is not only wrong for this area, but is also flawed. The Parish Councillors wanted to see traffic, environmental and educational impact reports, but none were available. We would very much welcome a special Parish Council meeting to discuss the issues involved. We are upset that seemingly only after our persistent enquiries have a new set of plans now appeared, showing the size of the housing development. This has delayed the statutory notices which the Council has to post on the road to inform the public. The sudden appearance of these new housing plans, the confusion over the developer's public exhibition date and the delay in providing fundamental reports, leads us to question the credibility of the application." SOS plan further meetings and demonstrations, as well as listing the support of further councillors and dignitaries. Contact: Helen Gee, Joint Chairperson, on 014847 865652 Neil Camp, Spokesman, on 01484 865392 2 February, 1999 Over 500 People Attend First Official Meeting District Councillor Colin Watson Pledges Support Over 500 people attended the first official public meeting of Save Our Scissett ("SOS") held at 7.30pm on Monday 1 February at St Augustine's Church, Scissett, at which District Councillor Colin Watson and Parish Councillor Anthony Weatherby pledged their support in the fight against the Wakefield Road planning application. The first phase of the proposed development (99/60/90179/E7) involves a Safeways supermarket and new swimming pool to be built on Scissett playing fields and agricultural land, followed by 320 new houses. In a two-hour meeting, residents of Scissett and the surrounding villages were unanimous in their opposition in what they regarded as the death knell for the local community. During the meeting the application was discussed and Councillors Watson and Weatherby both spoke, and were questioned by the audience. The SOS committee was also voted in. The audience heard that no attempt had been made by the development consortium to canvass the views of the local people. Helen Gee, Joint Chairperson, says: "The count stopped at 502 when the meeting started and people were still coming through the doors. We are delighted with such a large turnout and this reflects the depth of feeling that this outrageous planning proposal has caused. Both Councillors Watson and Weatherby promised their support for our campaign and we are confident of their help in our fight over the coming months. Scissett and the surrounding villages cannot cope with a development of this size and we object on all grounds: road safety, environmental, quality of life and impact on local employment. We do not want Safeways, City Link Properties and Oakes Estates ruining our villages for their own gain. They cannot properly demonstrate why we need this development and we think they are rushing the plans through before all the evidence is available. They must be stopped and the voice of the local people heard." SOS now turns its attention to the Denby Dale Parish Council meeting which takes place today at 7:30pm and will then continue to fiercely lobby the Kirklees Planning Department and the councillors who will make the ultimate decision on the Planning Sub-Committee (Heavy Woollen Area). The first date the application could be voted on is Friday 12 March, 1999. SOS plan further meetings and demonstrations, as well as listing the support of other councillors and dignitaries. Contact: Helen Gee, Joint Chairperson, on 014847 865652 Neil Camp, Spokesman, on 01484 865392 |