It seems to be taking a surprisingly long time to decide North Lincolnshire Homes' planning application seeking to change 1A Ancholme Gardens - a 'domestic dwelling' which forms part of the well-known pensioners' development - from residential to office use as a disaster recovery/business continuity site call centre.
The target date for a decision by North Lincolnshire planners was December 31 - more than a month ago - while a letter sent from the authority to North Lincolnshire Homes suggested D-Day by January 14.
The 'end of consultation' period was set by planners as December 10.
Brigg Town Council is objecting to the suggested change, believing it will lead to the unnecessary loss of a residential property for which there is demand in the area.
Although appreciating the need for a disaster control centre, the Town Council thinks this location (close to the River Ancholme) is completely inappropriate 'as the properties in Ancholme Gardens are within a high flood risk zone'.
The Town Council thinks a more suitable site should be found by North Lincolnshire Homes in another location.
Planning applications these days normally get decided pretty quickly, compared with how it was years ago, many smaller schemes now being decided by council officers rather than a committee of councillors, which was the procedure for many years under the Glanford authority.
Generally I'm a strong believer in council decisions being made at public meetings by ALL the councillors elected by the public (not one or two, or a handful). However, small planning applications are a notable exception. The old Brigg-based Glanford Borough Council had 40-plus councillors ploughing their way through a lengthy planning committee agenda every month or so. And, even then, some of the major schemes had to be decided by higher authority - Humberside County Council.
Today's North Lincolnshire Council deserves praise for the way it puts so much information about planning applications into the public domain, including comments by objectors and supporting documents from those proposing developments. Our planners also offer a weekly update of new applications and decisions reached.
Ancholme Gardens is strange place to locate a disaster coordinating centre!
ReplyDelete1. Any disaster control centre needs easy route access - Ancholme Gardens is down Elwes Street, the road, itself, could be easily cut off and isolated in a disaster situation.
2. If it's meant to be the region's disaster control centre, where can helicopters land in the area?
3. The mixture of elderly people and disaster controllers in an emergency don't mix!
4. Disasters come in all forms of guises.....why it is being located in Brigg?
5. Why can't the TAVR building in the shape of the ATC and army cadets' building, along Bridge St. be equipped and used for a potential disaster control centre?
Don't Panic! Don't Panic !
ReplyDeleteWe seem to have the same emergency plan as Warmington On Sea .
Whoever thought of using a flood emergency centre in an army cadets centre on an island between two bridges ?
"Don't tell him Harrison."
Okay,gms.....they could re-build it on stilts. OR have sea-cadets!
ReplyDeleteThe so-called Disaster Centre is not just for flooding - there could be an earthquake, typhoon, gas explosion, UFO's, plague and crop failure!
The other alternative could be Wrawby windmill; the sails could be used to send signals by semaphore if there is a massive communication failure.
Point of interset: the CND organisation uses the semphoric symbols for C - N - D on their badge.
They don't like it up 'em!