Houses replace fields as council watches

Steve Rush has talked openly about the housing situation in Clitheroe and has been far more informative than the council in updating residents on the numerous planning issues which have caused a great deal of confrontation in what was once a quiet market town.

How can Coun. Hill defend himself when the Core Startegy has still not been passed after a consultation period of six years?

He quoted that it has been a stressful undertaking for those councillors directly involved. He said Coun. Rush confronted us with “another ill informed, inaccurate, misleading and one sided diatribe” about the Core Strategy.

While the planning committee are obviously dragging their feet over something which is apparently too difficult for them to deal with, Clitheroe’s outlying fields are quickly being replaced by Lego Houses which are not in keeping with the town.

Large three-storey houses are now looming over us. The developers are squeezing as many homes as possible into limited spaces. No thought has been given to bungalows and our ageing people.

There have been petitions sent in, a demonstration outside the Council Offices, a march for Standen, numerous letters and pointless attendance at planning meetings where residents have had to sit back and listen to planning councillors from outlying areas agreeing to Clitheroe being made into a building site.

Coun. Hill and the council were not prepared to oppose the developments because of the cost! Clitheroe councillors have been very supportive. Certain members of the public have made their views known through your paper. Well done to them and long may they continue to have the energy to resist all these large developments.

Well done Waddow View for fighting their own corner and winning.

If only the townspeople had been given more information about development. Every ward has had to contest the building and many people feel they have been kept in the dark.

We have attended meetings where at the last minute the Highways Agency have changed their mind and approved the schemes. Never an explanation given as to why.

So I feel that Coun. Hill, as Chairman of the Planning Committee, has not represented Clitheroe’s views effectively. While we have no Core Strategy in place yet, the houses will keep replacing our fields while the RVBC sit back and watch. This, to me, is incompetence!

Val Parkes

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