Barrington Parish Council Monthly Report: October 2021
Dear All
The main issues this month have been Redrow and a formal response to the OxCam Arc. All on top of “normal” Parish Council business.
Village Consultation on 13th November
This has been postponed to early Spring given the recent developments on the Redrow site. Date to be advised.
Traffic Calming
You will perhaps have noticed the bands across the main entrances to the village which were part of the traffic calming survey in terms of traffic volume and speed.
Whilst we continue with this project can I please emplore residents to set an example by abiding by the speed limits in the village which are 30 mph on all roads bar the Glebe Road area which is 20mph. These limits are in place for a reason – safety. You and your’s and other people’s children and pets. Especially aroind the school.
Vandals
The damaged Bench on West Green is being replaced. We do not know how this damage occurred but again it is you who are paying for the repair – several hundreds of pounds to replace it.
Please continue to report any damage that you see.
The problem of vandalism generally has been reported to the police and their increased presence has been requested in the village.
If you know who is involved please explain this to them or tell one of the Parish Council. Parents: please check on what your youngsters are doing – talk to them about how needless damage spoils it for everyone and has to be paid for.
Speedwatch
The good work continues but we do need someone to administer the Rota and collate the data so if you can help please contact Beckie Whitehouse our Clerk. This is not onerous – you do not need to be out there – just organising the rota for our willing volunteers who are fully committed. Come on – someone must have the time and interest to help out! As noted above it is to protect our children and pets.
Thank you Event
Just to remind you that this will be held on the 10th December in the Village Hall. Details to follow.
QEII Woodland
Volunteers needed so please if you can spare a few hours do contact Jacquie McBride.
Planning
Thank you to residents who have contacted the Parish Council about this but we are only a Consultee so can you please pass your comments to SCDC Planning Department asap. They are the ones who decide.
Redrow
The Parish council had a site visit recently and some houses have already been built and sold.
Meanwhile Residents will have received notification of Redrow’s applications to increase the number of housing units on the new site – 2 more in the lower half and 38 more in the upper half.
The Parish Council only received a very brief 5 page power point presentation on the proposals from Redrow which had very little detail and was very hard to interpret in terms of the proposed changes. Councillors have subsequently seen the two planning applications which were accompanied by 74 documents on one and 87 documents on the other application. More documents have since been added.
The proposals were discussed at the BPC meeting on 14th October. Redrow did not attend.
It was noted that the southern application (near the school) brings the development further into the green space previously separating the site from Haslingfield Road. The northern site also squeezes housing units into the green boundary around the site.
The plans overall now have even more the look of an urban layout. No attempt at improving connectivity with the village has been made. No community facilities are provided within the site. No effort was made to discuss the proposals with the village or the parish council when they were being drawn up – only presented to us as a finished plan. Our previous and continuing comments about the need to improve connection with the village; about the need for improved recreational facilities in the public open space area on the site; about the lack of parking or turnaround for dropping off children at the school – all of these have been ignored.
Councillors also raised concerns about surface water drainage from the site and the increased load on the foul sewer system which is already overloaded; about the increased traffic impact; and the social and demographic impact upon Barrington of an 18.2% increase in housing numbers.
The revised development would have 260 housing units – Barrington currently has approximately 460 houses and 830 residents. Redrow is therefore proposing to build a site that will be a 56.5% increase imposed on the village with no doctor, one shop, and no cycle routes or footpaths to neighbouring villages. If we guestimate Redrow occupancy as 3 per unit – it is now proposing to increase the population of Barrington by a further 120 people making a new added total of 780 – that is almost a 94% increase in the size of the village population.
The proposals therefore appeared to councillors to be unsupportable, and a response will be submitted accordingly, objecting to the increase and highlighting the significant likely effects upon Barrington.
OxCam Arc
Thanks are due to Julian Priddle, Sharon Isaacs and George Evennett who helped the Parish Council prepare a response to the government’s OxCam Arc campaign. The response has been posted on our web site. One key message we included in our response was:
All development should be prioritised by locally-agreed not developer promoted (aka
Thakeham) choices. Locally, democratically agreed solutions not nationally targeted locations are required.
Comments and suggestions
Please do continue to get in touch with us direct or via the new Website. Our Contact details are below.
We face challenging times but the Parish Council is working hard to embrace opportunities whilst protecting the essence of our beautiful village. We appreciate the support of villagers in recent months. We need to pull together now more than ever.
Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp
Chair, Barrington Parish Council
August 2021
Contact Details
Parish Clerk:
parishclerk@barringtonparishcouncil.gov.uk
Green Charity Secretary:
gc@Barringtoncambs.com