My speech to Thetford Town Council on the 24th April 2012 regarding the Thetford Area Action Plan - the Council voted 8-4 to agree that the TAAP is 'unsound' and wrote to the Government Inspector outlining our concerns. The 4 members voting to support the TAAP were Conservatives....

Some months ago as a Council, we debated our increasing concerns regarding the Thetford Area Action Plan and in particular the excessive growth to the North of the town. Recently, I spoke on behalf of the council at the examination in public and outlined my concerns regarding the lack of planned regeneration to existing areas of Thetford, concerns I know that are shared by many councillors.

As a Council, we have formally objected to the outline planning application regarding the concentration of housing being built to the North. We have also discussed concerns about the loss of a very important community facility when the Charles Burrell site closes. We’ve also debated the free bus service for the new development, and compared it to the lack of services for other areas. This list of inequalities could go on....

Recently, we have heard how the Leader of Breckland Council intends to advocate the removal of the 40% target for affordable housing as part of the development to the north of Thetford and instead allow developers to make a financial contribution. Increasing regeneration sounds laudable enough – but these proposals are very dangerous as they would accelerate the creation of a two tier Thetford with a much greater concentration of private homes to the North and an increased concentration of social housing to the South. We have already seen the start of this intensification of social housing with the garage court developments around Barnham Cross and the Sweyne Close improvements – all entirely social housing.

At the examination in public Breckland officers explained that the intention to allow growth was to facilitate regeneration – if this indeed was the motivation then one would have hoped for a much greater emphasis on this and some more concrete proposals. The lack of a Town Centre masterplan is a major concern as is the lack of sufficient energy resources for the new development which have still not been resolved.

As a Council, I believe we need to make clear our frustration at these proposals and I would therefore propose that come to a collective view that we consider this document to be unsound.

I would further suggest that as a council, we join with the Thetford Society and the Shadwell Estate who have come to a similar position and that we write to the inspector to formally outline this decision before the official judgement is published in the near future.