It was standing room only at the Pinder Hall for the Public Question Session on Planning on Wednesday 7 December that had been organised between the Parish Council and the Cookham Society.  Al three of our Borough Councillors were there and most of the Parish Council. Councillor Kathy Newbound who stood as the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate was also there, along with Councillor Emrys Richards the ex mayor and Councillor Leo Walters, leader of the Conservatives at the Royal Borough.  Theresa May MP sat at the top table along with David Trigwell, head of planning at the Borough Council, Councillor Vicki Howes, chairman of the Royal Borough Planning Committee, David Ashwanden, Chairman of the Cookham Society and Pat Woodbridge Chairman of the Parish Council who also chaired the meeting.

 

There were six printed questions but forward and then questions and comments from the floor on these questions. Theresa May gave a short address and said the one size fits all was not working although there were plans to change this.  It seemed the new plans were also going to cause problems. The planning rules allow for a developer to appeal to the government if the plans are turned down locally.  Theresa May said that the government must be allowed a say, as in the case of building nuclear power stations for example. She also mentioned that the infra structure of a community could be stretched as regards water, sewage, schools and medical facilities.  She also said that it was estimated that a large amount of money needed to be spent in this area and it would be the Council who would be responsible for this.  Vicki Howe also said that she was horrified that this was happening and had only realised this when she attended a national meeting for Councillors. Theresa May pointed out the stupidity of a million empty houses being available but the government were hell bent on building more in the south east and bulldozing houses in the north east. Vicki Howes pointed out that affordable housing which was needed was also a problem as the average price of housing in the Royal Borough was around £300,000. 

 

Councillor Martin Coker from the Parish Council said that the Parish Council is working on a Parish plan and would like Cookham residents to volunteer to give their input to this.  David Ashwanden of the Cookham Society backed this and pointed out how important this is. 

 

Most of the meeting did concentrate on planning in general, although discussion was held on the Colin Hatch development and the San Remo development. One problem seemed to be that a bungalow for example that is being knocked down to build a block of flats is counted as a brown field site and is being encouraged by the Deputy Prime Minister. The amount of extra dwellings does not really come into the equation.

 

The meeting lasted nearly two and a half hours and a great deal of information was given on planning. It did seem that the south east is fighting an enormous battle to stop every blade of grass being destroyed for government plans for new housing in the area.