SOCIAL EVENTS - 2008

Our next social event will be on Saturday 14 June, when we are planning "Shaken not stirred" - an evening with James Bond. This will be dinner and a talk by 2008 BAFTA nominee and village resident John Richardson, special effects producer for James Bond and Harry Potter movies. Tickets are £15 each and include a complimentary Martini cocktail on arrival, plus a two course dinner. Tickets are on sale in the SPAR.

HOPPERS FARM

DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL FOR HOPPERS FARM

Posted on 26 March 2008

The proposal has been rejected by Wycombe District Council. We anticipate that the developer will appeal against the decision, in which case there will be an Inquiry. Meanwhile the developer may choose to submit further applications.

Posted on 8 January 2008

A proposal has been submitted to Wycombe District Council for the erection of 36 houses on part of the Hoppers Farm site.

The proposed layout lies along the southern side of Cockpit Road, with a new access road roughly mid-way between Oak View and Pipers Corner. The layout shows all the existing farm buildings to be demolished, foundations etc to be removed, and the whole area "beautified" with new tree planting - plus installation of a children's playground. If you want to have a look at the detail online via the WDC web site, the application reference is 07/08115/OUT.

The Residents' Association is going to submit a formal objection on a range of points and you will be receiving a letter drop within the next week or so outlining the main points that we believe can be put forward against the application, with details of who to write to - IF you wish to object. At the moment, all correspondence has to be received by WDC by 21 January, but this may be extended since the application was only lodged on 21 December, so a number of working days were lost over the Christmas and New Year period.

The anticipation is that it will initially be refused, in which case the developers are certain to appeal, so we could be looking at a long process. We will keep you posted.

FORMAL OBJECTION SUBMITTED TO WYCOMBE DISTRICT COUNCIL

Posted on 14 January 2008

The following is the text of a the letter sent to WDC on behalf of the Association:

"We ask you to note the following objections of this Association to the above application:

• Hoppers Farm lies within the Green Belt.

• Hoppers Farm lies within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

• The fields along that side of Cockpit Road are rural and attractive and the road forms a natural boundary between the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the village.

• Building on that side of Cockpit Road will create a precedent and could open the floodgates to much more housing on the site.

• Building on Hoppers Farm would begin to destroy the natural corridor that lies between this village and Widmer End.

• There is no justification for building on this site.

• Any development at Hoppers Farm would be likely to create a substantial increase in the amount of traffic that would use Cockpit Road and, probably, increase the existing rush hour problems at its junction at Pipers Corner. Cockpit Road is already a dangerous road and we note that the outline application includes a proposal to create a new access road onto Cockpit Road for the vehicles of the new housing.

 We therefore urge that this proposal be refused."

"LANDBANK" SCHEME IN OPERATION IN THE VILLAGE

Great Kingshill, despite being one single community, has the known disadvantage of being split into three Parliamentary divisions, two District Councils (Wycombe and Chiltern, with a rough 67%/33% split in terms of houses) and three Parish Councils.

Until very recently we had believed that the District Council split also gave us two Electoral Divisions, one for each; this we now know to be incorrect. The Bucks County Council website has shown that a small part of our community lies within the Penn, Coleshill and Holmer Green Electoral Division.

Within the last few days we have contacted the relevant County, District and Parish Councillors to draw their attention to the fact that a field alongside Spurlands End Road has been purchased by a property "landbank" company that has then advertised and sold all of the land into sub-divided plots with so-called investment potential. The website of the company concerned is

http://www.theenglishlandpartnership.com/plots.php

We realise that nothing illegal has happened and that such purchases and resales are happening in many rural communities, particularly throughoutthe South-East.

We were one of the organisations that lobbied Wycombe District Council about our concerns relating to a field at the bottom of Cryers Hill where a similar purchase and resale scheme was under way. The District Council placed an ongoing Article 4 directive on that field.

We have asked that a similar ongoing Article 4 directive is applied by Chiltern District Council to the field alongside Spurlands End Road.

The Royal Oak site

The Royal Oak site - update as at 12 January 2007

Some of you may already have heard, if not - the developers won the day and planning permission has been granted!

Underlying the Inspector's decision, published on 10 January, is reference to case law quoted during the hearing relating to use of the site, and her report contains the following comments:

" . . where a use requires a building in which to operate, that use cannot survive the destruction of the building, and there is no continuing right to use the site for that purpose after the building has been removed. To put it simply, the lawful use of a site does not survive the demolition of the building in which the use took place. Given my conclusion on the use of the appeal site and bearing in mind the Council's own view concerning sites with a 'nil' use, I do not consider the proposals before me represent the loss of a community facility . . . ".

On this basis, she concludes that the Community Facilities Assessment, the Viability Appraisal, and, by implication, much of this Association's representation at the Inquiry, were not material to her consideration.

The rest of the report fundamentally supports the developers' contention that the proposed development is more in keeping with the Chilterns Building Design Guide than much of the current "less attractive characteristics" that the village has at the moment, resulting from ". . . rapid development in the twentieth century which has created a relatively suburban character . . ." which has "diluted the traditional character and sense of place typical of a village in the Chilterns. It is this locally distinctive character and appearance which the Council is seeking to protect and re-establish in the AONB through its adopted policies and SPG ".

Unfortunate but, in reality, not a totally surprising decision - at least we can't say that we didn't put up a fight!