“NOW’S the time we have really got to stick up for ourselves”, says the deputy mayor of Fordingbridge.

Councillor Anna Wilson made the comments at Fordingbridge Town Council’s annual meeting on May 13, during discussions over the neighbourhood plan and what was being planned in the future for the town.

Councillor Mike Jackson, who has been leading on the town’s neighbourhood plan, said he was disappointed over Councillor Edward Heron’s response regarding the need for more employment opportunities in the town and the possibility of creating an enterprise centre and felt New Forest District Council were “not really interested in talking to us”. He also questioned whether it was worthwhile proceeding with the plan.

READ: Concerns over employment opportunities in Fordingbridge>>>

He said: “It becomes obvious that New Forest District Council are just intent on getting their [housing] numbers up. They are not really interested in talking to us, which is a great disappointment to me.Whilst we are not arguing about the number of houses the number of peripheral things around there like pathways, access, leisure facilities, they seem to be just proceeding. I think the local plan is probably signed of now or due to be.”

He told the meeting the government had announced plans to allow council’s to get planning permission for housing through as quickly as possible. Cllr Jackson added: “That is even more reason why our wishes will be ignored. It is very disappointing.”

Cllr Wilson, pictured below, said: “It would strike me that now’s the time we have really got to stick up for ourselves and just come up with what we want and tell NFDC planning ‘this is what we want, we’re not going to accept what we are given’. We all need to get together somehow to decide what it is we are looking for.”

Salisbury Journal:

She said footpaths were in need of upgrading."

Cllr Jackson added: “We should be doing something. We can’t alter the housing but we could certainly alter the leisure and open space. But NFDC do not appear to want to talk to us. They want to go for the easy option and approve whatever the developers come up with.

“The developers I’ve spoken to are quite amenable to do these things but if the district council are not engaging with them they are going to put in the easy option and it will just be rubber stamped.

“Whether we have actually got to protest and take tractors across to Lyndhurst to try and make them see sense.”

Since the meeting, arrangements are being made by the council to meet with NFDC’s head of planning.