23 December 2017
NEWS FROM THE SECRETARY: December
Committee Meeting
Report from Cllr Don Massey In
this, Don reported that due to the commitment of both the Council and
residents, Bexley remains the No. 1 borough in London for recycling.
The Garden Waste collection service brings £1.4m a year in to
Bexley's funds! Bexley was on-course for a further underspend; but
faces several challenges such as Homelessness. However, it did have a
Reserve Fund and a grip on its Finances - and has been working hard
towards 'Self-sufficiency'.
Orchard View Farm, upper
Parsonage Lane The Committee welcomed the decision by Bexley's
Planning Committee (PC) at its meeting on December 14th to overturn the
planning officer's surprising recommendation to allow the existing
buildings on this site to be demolished and replaced by three dwellings.
This was an important one to win as it represented a major threat to
North Cray's Green Belt. If lost, it would have opened the floodgates to
further breaches of Green Belt Policy (national and local) by
encouraging other landowners, or developers, to make similar
applications.
Orchard View is a particularly sensitive site as
it runs alongside an unmade track leading to Joydens and Chalk Woods,
one used every day by local people walking their dogs, and by visitors
from other parts of Bexley and beyond who use this bridleway for leisure
pursuits such as horse riding and rambling. If allowed, the extra
number of cars and service vehicles coming and going at all times, seven
days a week would have affected the lives of people living in Parsonage
Lane - which in places is narrow and has no pavements.
In
refusing Planning's recommendation, the PC said that the proposal was
an inappropriate development in the Green Belt and contrary to several
of Bexley's planning policies, the National Planning Policy Framework
and the London Plan. It added that by reason of its design and
incongruous appearance, the development would not represent good design
and would fail to preserve the individual quality or character of the
Cray Valley Heritage Land. To see what they meant you can view the
drawings on Bexley's Planning Web Page by searching on the ref
17/02176/FUL, or by following this LINK.
A 'webcast' of the debate,
available on Bexley's website can be viewed by following this LINK
Special appeal by our Webmaster
A large part of the information published in our NewsMail
service by our webmaster Nik Carter, consists of information on crime
and crime prevention sent to him by Neighbourhood Watch and our local
police team. We are concerned that this could create a false
impression that North Cray is an unsafe area in which to live and want
to balance this kind of information with more items of local interest.
Members are invited to send him any material of this kind for
publication in a NewsMail ideally supported by photographs.
Perhaps something like the NewsMail that he recently published
about David Phillips' safe return from the Round the World Clipper Race.
Please do support Nik in this way by sending contributions to The
Committee
Jean Gammons
Secretary
