LETTER: Ribble Valley meets needs of property developers, not residents

While I mentioned in my address the highway problems with the Whalley Road/Littlemoor junction which would be intensified if this development was allowed to proceed, I was somewhat stunned by the robust nature of the debunking by the planning officers of such thoughts (also mentioned by councillors!).

Proceedings took a few twists and turns, with no proposals to pass or refuse until eventually a compromise to defer for clarity on the highway issues in the submitted report.

Regarding the said junction’s improvement, I have now established that those issues were seriously flawed because they relied on “the committed development of the former Barkers Nursery site... in 2013” to make matters better. This will not happen anytime soon, if at all!

So Committee was being recommended to proceed with the development with no highway safety measures (other than some attention to bus stops). So the lives of people on this principal route in and out of town (including school buses) were to be put at risk.

I came away from that meeting thinking about maladministration and the ombudsman, pausing briefly to pick up the latest borough council newspaper, which on the front page under housing strategy gratifyingly announces “... (this) will be a major tool in preserving Ribble Valley and enabling developers to meet the needs of residents, not developers.”

Wrong!

In fact the reverse is true.

BRUCE DOWLES,

Whalley Road,

Clitheroe