SCARAB

Swineshead's Conservation Association

Swineshead's Duck-Pond

Dear SCARAB member,

It is not often that I write to enlist your support, the previous occasion being in 2000 when the Conservation area itself was subject to an application to remove the traditional timber windows from the Pig and Whistle public house and replace them with plastic. The Association lost on that occasion, due in part to a weak and misinformed Parish Council. The applicant soon after sold the pub, as predicted, and left us with perhaps the only conservation area in the country wherein modern windows outnumber traditional.

Nevertheless, SCARAB has continued to fight against inappropriate development and has been instrumental in protecting much of the character and history of Swineshead. The village is no longer the easy prey that developers would like it to be. On this occasion however, I would like to draw your attention to a proposal of a different sort, an application to build houses overlooking that most pleasant of Swineshead’s recreational areas, the village duck-pond.

SCARAB is objecting to this proposal , for the reasons set out below, and we urge you to make your own individual comments in this instance. Due to the collapse of the Local Plan the Association believes that interim measures taken by planners may result in decisions being taken which ignore the planning safeguards we have come to expect. It appears that the Swineshead Parish council have actually approved this proposal on the grounds that the site may have been included within the village envelope had the Local Plan gone ahead. When asked, one Parish Councillor stated that “ the rules have changed “ . Of course, the Draft Local Plan would have been subject to government inspector scrutiny.
We believe that this situation has given rise to ‘planning consent by the back door’ and we are severely critical of anybody that has been involved in it without consultation with all Cole’s Lane residents. Also, we believe that a wider consultation with village residents would have been the correct procedure, bearing in mind the importance of this Designated Landscape Site to the community as a whole.

Our collective objections may also be disregarded , not as blatantly as in 2000 when the then Parish Chairman refused to note any objections from SCARAB members at all, but our official objection may be counted as ‘one’ instead of many. Please send your comments to;

Mr. Trevor Thompson
c/o Planning Department
Municipal Buildings
West Street Boston

Or email planningapplicationcomments@boston.gov.uk

The number of the application is B/06/0187 and you can view the plans at the Boston Borough Council offices.

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SCARAB objections;

The site is outside of the village development envelope and there is no requirement for such a development
The site should not have been covertly included within the village envelope without the public being allowed mandatory consultation with a government inspector . On these grounds the application should be sent back to the Parish Council.

The site overlooks Cole’s Lane duck-pond, a village amenity area recently designated a ‘Protected Landscape site’.

Cole’s Lane itself is too fragile an environment to survive such a development with its character intact.

The site is not a ‘Brownfield site’ in the intended sense of the term .

Extra traffic generated, during and after construction, would threaten existing wildlife and severely impact upon existing residents and the environment.

Thank you for your support,

Colan Campbell

Secretary

SCARAB