Newsbrief No 54 reported that Lancaster City Council had just launched an 8 week public consultation on the proposed Main Modifications to the Local Plan. In the Newsbrief here is link we explained what topics these Modifications covered and why and how CLOUD was going to respond. We have now submitted a comprehensive set of objections and comments from CLOUD and these are set out below. Following on from this, we’d like to encourage all CLOUD members to submit their own responses to show the Council that we remain opposed to many of the key elements in the Local Plan, including of course Bailrigg garden village. Once the responses to the Main Modifications have been dealt with, we next and final step will be for the Planning Inspector to prepare and issue his report on the Lancaster Local Plan.
CLOUD Response to the Main Modifications.
The following link is to our full response to the Main Modifications to the Local Plan
How to make your response to the Main Modifications.
The Council has provided guidance notes on how to prepare responses. These are available on the Local Plan website - here’s the link http://www.lancaster.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/local-plan-modification-consultation . Responses need to be submitted by the deadline of Monday 7th October 2019. We would encourage you to :
Keep your comments short. If, for example, you have responded to earlier rounds of consultation on the Local Plan but can’t find anything in these Main Modifications to reflect the points you raised - then just say that the Plan has failed to address the issues you raised in earlier responses and that you consider it remains unsound. It’s important to include the reference to ‘unsound’.
Don’t copy directly from the wording of the CLOUD comments. Even where you agree completely with what we’ve written, please put the response in your own words.
Keep your comments confined to the Main Modifications and the issues they raise. The guidance notes make clear that comments on other topics will not be accepted at this stage in the planning process.
While the guidance notes encourage you to use the online form, this isn’t compulsory. Its fine to submit comments by post or email if you prefer.
Background Information.
We are not alone! The Guardian newspaper (the national one not the Lancaster Guardian) carried an article on 9th September with the headline : Green belt earmarked for homes ‘that may never be needed’. Does this not sound all too familiar with what we have been arguing here with the Lancaster Local Plan? You can access the full article by this link The article quotes a campaigner in Coventry saying that the government’s population projections are skewed and exaggerated by ‘a large number of foreign students, many of whom will not settle in the area.’ CLOUD made exactly the same point during the Local Plan Hearings - not that we have any issue with overseas students attending Lancaster University, but that the government statisticians are failing to recognise that most students leave the area on completion of their courses in order to find work elsewhere.
CLOUD Annual General Meeting.
As required by our constitution, the 2019 CLOUD Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 23rd October in Rowley Court, Scotforth at 7.30pm. All CLOUD members are invited to attend - please note the date in your diary and note the change of venue from previous meetings (The Cobblers Suite at the Boot & Shoe is no longer available).
We’ll issue a further Newsbrief with the full agenda for the meeting. Basically the AGM will follow the usual pattern of receiving reports on activities over the last year (of which there have been quite a few!), electing the CLOUD committee for the following year, and dealing with whatever matters CLOUD members wish to raise. It seems unlikely that we will know the final outcome of the Planning Inquiry at the time of this meeting, but we will report any developments that have taken place.