Grove Airfield Planning Event

This evening I was pleased to see a number of residents at the planning event held at Grove Church of England Primary School at North Drive. This was organised by Planning Aid South and had a number of presentations including one from a Vale Planning Officer. We were all given information about how best to respond to large (and small) planning applications and what suggestions we can make if we wish to be constructive about the forthcoming proposals. We were told that a planning application for the airfield site is expected at the end of this month, but there would be a long period of consultation probably taking us up to next June. Realistically we were told that any building work would not commence before 2012 at the earliest.

The table I sat at discussed S106 agreements (legal agreements which tie the developer into providing infrastructure such as roads and schools) and how important it was to make sure that these are delivered in time as development progresses. There are plans to have further workshops if residents missed this one and in particular we were looking at one which may include design and layout. This was a constructive evening, and I was surprised to see how positive people were in these times of gloom and doom. We are hoping that by the time the houses are on the horizon, the recession may be behind us - let us hope!