Postbag
16,000 new homes were not in the original plan
ROBERT Key's "View from the Commons" in last week's Journal throws up many employment and housing statistics but the final requirement of possibly 16,000 new dwellings by 2020 is indeed alarming when balanced against environmental impact and the quality of life.
However, please do not blame the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which proposed a much lower figure of 9,200 dwellings (an average of 460 per annum) for the Salisbury housing market area
covering the 20-year period 2006-2026, not 2020 as quoted.
During the very lengthy and exhaustive RSS process, time and time again the pleas throughout the region were for more houses and particularly for many more affordable homes. Clearly this demand for houses to cater for economic growth as well as for accommodating people coming afresh to live in the south-west had to be considered against our
concerns for the environment.
The next stage in the housing numbers game was the Examination in Public (EiP), an independent panel appointed by the Secretary of State, which held a comprehensive examination of the RSS over ten weeks in the
middle of last year and called upon 191 organisations and people to give evidence.
The panel reported back to
government last December and
recommended an average 24 per cent increase over the proposed RSS housing numbers.
For the Salisbury area the
numbers were increased by 34.8 per cent from 9,200 to 12,400 dwellings.
Now we read that the total could escalate to 16,000, some 74 per cent higher than the RSS.
As Robert Key says, Secretary of state Hazel Blears will consider the panel report and publish any changes she wants in the summer.
Following a further 12-week
consultation the final decision will be announced in the autumn. Watch this space!
I also share Robert's distaste for incomprehensible titles like "Regional Spatial Strategy".
I tried to get a name change when a high-powered official from central government visited the south-west early in 2004 to explain the new planning system. I had no success; by then it had clearly been set in stone in whichever government department was responsible for planning at that time.
Parliamentarians and Whitehall officials alike should take heed that bureaucratic jargon baffles the electorate and puts them off
politics.
At least the Local Government Association now recognises this nonsense and has ordered councils to avoid 100 of the worst offending terms and words.
With luck we may get some plain language from now on and so begin to understand what actually happens in government circles.
JULIAN JOHNSON, Chairman - Regional Assembly Planning & Transport
3:02pm Thursday 14th February 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: John B. Pope, Tisbury on 12:07pm Mon 18 Feb 08
Salisbury ever was a Metropolis, and it is here to stay. It may alarm those of us who once lived in leafy lane, to witness all the building currently in hand, and contemplate the Estates yet to come. Casting ones eye over fellow residents, too few of us are indigenous to Wiltshire, we moved westward to escape the rat race of the South East Corner of England. Is it unreasonable that others wish to follow? Life is not as it used to be. Marriage seems no longer the Norm, Divorce and Separation not uncommon, we the more elderly still need to occupy housing, if merely to use it as a store for our personal pills and potions. Then of course we welcome new residents in uncontrolled numbers. It matters not whether it is a Curry chef from the sub continent or a plumber from Poland, or an Agricultural Worker from Portugal, or goodness only knows how many who claim Sanctuary. All need and are entitled to good accommodation.
It is no good for any of to quibble as to whether it is nine twelve or sixteen thousand homes that are needed in our area, for the number needed is by its nature empirical.
It is past the time for this country to tend its fences, if we don't, soon enough it will not be sixteen thousand homes that Salisbury needs, but twenty five thousand.
Our Political leaders have let everyone down, and that remark is not intended to be Party Political.
Salisbury ever was a Metropolis, and it is here to stay. It may alarm those of us who once lived in leafy lane, to witness all the building currently in hand, and contemplate the Estates yet to come. Casting ones eye over fellow residents, too few of us are indigenous to Wiltshire, we moved westward to escape the rat race of the South East Corner of England. Is it unreasonable that others wish to follow? Life is not as it used to be. Marriage seems no longer the Norm, Divorce and Separation not uncommon, we the more elderly still need to occupy housing, if merely to use it as a store for our personal pills and potions. Then of course we welcome new residents in uncontrolled numbers. It matters not whether it is a Curry chef from the sub continent or a plumber from Poland, or an Agricultural Worker from Portugal, or goodness only knows how many who claim Sanctuary. All need and are entitled to good accommodation.
It is no good for any of to quibble as to whether it is nine twelve or sixteen thousand homes that are needed in our area, for the number needed is by its nature empirical.
It is past the time for this country to tend its fences, if we don't, soon enough it will not be sixteen thousand homes that Salisbury needs, but twenty five thousand.
Our Political leaders have let everyone down, and that remark is not intended to be Party Political.
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
