MOST PEOPLE WILL KNOW BY NOW THAT Bloor Homes has put in a revision to the planning application number N/2013/1325. The changes appear to be pretty minor, though they are clearly reacting to some of the objections raised by residents.

If you have objected before, you need to object again. This is because….  a new consultation has been launched by the submission of revised plans. I realise that this is a nuisance, but developers do this to wear people down and reduce the number of objections. I will certainly be submitting the same objections as last time, as I cannot see that any of the ‘tweaks’ that Bloor Homes have undertaken do anything to deal with the main problems – traffic access and the loss of greenspace.

One resident has complained to me that he phoned the council to speak to the planning officer who issued the letters, Andrew Smith. He encountered Andrew’s voicemail stating that his is away on holiday until 17 March 2014. This is after the 21-day consultation period! Obviously the young man is perfectly entitled to have a holiday. However, in that case the letter should have gone out in someone else’s name or, at the very least, Andrew should have supplied an alternative contact name and number. Obviously people are keen to talk to the planning officer about the revised application because they want to understand what the changes are. I have complained to the Planning Department about this.

So the message is much the same as before. Please write to object, and I will monitor the lists to see when this will come up on Planning Committee. Obviously it won’t be before 17 March 2014 – the deadline for this round of objections. The April meeting is 8 April and the May meeting is 6 May, so either of these two could have this application on the agenda.

For those people who have questioned the risk of heavy metal contamination you need to take a look at the document filed by the developer reporting on sampling for this. They claim that they have got evidence that the site is free from contamination. I’m no expert but I wonder how thorough the search has been?

Keep in touch – if you are on the circulation list, you will have had this update by email. If you are not on the list and would like to be added please let me have you email address plus your local address for verification.

Click here to link to the new planning application – look for application number N/2013/1325 – to read the PDF documents click on the red marker PDF(file size) – it’s not the world’s easiest site to use for ordinary members of the public! (Note: the larger the file size the longer it will take to download)