The Magic Roundabout

Readers of a certain age may recall this children's TV programme from the 1960's which acquired a cult following amongst the young and not so young alike.

We were reminded of this long forgotten classic late last week with the announcement of  revisions to the plans for the George & Dragon site.

In an earlier post, we reported that the Borough aborculturist had slapped a tree preservation order on the whole site.  It turns out that our suspicion that this might lead to design changes was right.  The owners responded immediately with a revised site plan which now includes the trees and Stafford BC has now sent out another letter asking for our comments.  We appear to be going round in circles.

• First there was the application to build flats
• Then there was the announcement that there would be a revision and that we would have to send in more letters 
• Next, the application was withdrawn
• Then another application was submitted
• Now this application has been revised before it has been fully assessed

In our view, we are being presented with a moving target, a point which we have taken up with Stafford Borough Councillor Richard Oldfield.   Not only that but the plans are now out of step with the design statement which has not been resubmitted.  What we can learn from this is that we need to be vigilant and keep up the pressure so, if you haven't written in yet, now might be a good time.

Anyway, as far as the revisions themselves go, we are hard pushed to spot the differences between the original and the new version, a point not helped by the omission of any kind of explanation.  Close inspection, however, reveals the presence of more trees on the revised plans suggesting that the owners have indeed responded to the tree preservation order.

Unfortunately, it also reveals something else.  Each of the eight houses is now shown with THREE car parking spaces in addition to a garage rather than two plus garage that were originally designed.  This means, dear readers, that there could be as many as 32 vehicles on this site - almost as congested as the onerous block of flats now thankfully consigned to the dustbin of planning history.

One of the major objections to any development of the pub site has always been the adverse impact on the already dangerous traffic conditions.  We learnt recently that there have been five fatalities in this area during the past 14 years.   Is it really in the interests of road safety to add another 32 vehicles?

If there is any good news at all about the revised application it is that we now have another two weeks in which to object.  As we said earlier, if you haven't written in yet there is no time like the present.

Florence, Dougal and Brian, we miss you!

The Empire Strikes Back

Events took an unexpected turn,  this week, when opposition to the planning application emerged from the most unlikely of sources: none other than Stafford Borough Council itself who have slapped a tree preservation order on the whole site!

The full implications of this are not totally clear yet but it is not unreasonable to assume that the design of the development might have to be reconsidered.  The current plans appear to involve the removal of some the existing trees which presumably now can't happen. Watch this space! 

AND DON'T FORGET TO SEND IN YOUR LETTERS OF OBJECTION!

Parish Council Planning Committee Meeting

There is a meeting of the Parish Planning Committee next Tuesday, 24th November at which, we are reliably informed, 09/12885/FUL will be discussed.  The meeting is open to members of the public.  Unfortunately, we will not be able to attend due to business commitments but we urge all to do so.  The meeting will be held in the Village Hall and starts at 7pm.

What Next?

Having studied the new proposals in some depth, we have to admit to being somewhat confused by the basic designs.  Three storey "dwellings" with five bedrooms?  And only two day rooms on the ground floor?  We would have thought that for a modern house to be desirable in the current climate there would have to be at least three ground floor rooms ie. a kitchen, lounge and dining room.

Call us paranoid if you like but none of this made sense to our way of thinking until someone else dropped another variable into the mix.  What if, at some future time, having won permission to develop these "dwellings" the owners decided to convert them to flats?  Eight dwellings with three storeys = 24 flats.  Which is, purely coincidentally, the same number of cars the application makes provision for!

We've checked with the Borough Council who advise that another planning application would be required if the owners wanted to undertake such a conversion.  However, by that time the pub would be long gone and the "dwellings" erected.  And where would the residents be then poor things?

Of course, all of this is purely hypothetical and just another example of our weary ramblings .....

Baffled and Bamboozled?

Anyone reading the new application might be somewhat baffled by some of the statements it contains.  For example, it claims to have followed recommendations made by the local Parish Council.  We had a long chat with Councillor Joy Bennett about this recently.  Councillors did indeed meet with the owners and gave opinions about the proposals.  The only recommendation they made was that the owners should present their intentions to the local community at an open morning (there is an earlier blog post about this).  The owners chose to disregard this recommendation.

Another claim made in the Design Statement (page 7) is that "the new solution is based on general views provided by the community and parish as a whole."  Did they ask your opinion?  We don't know of anyone who has been consulted or provided information to the owners or planners.  If they had taken any notice of local opinion then perhaps they might have given it up as a bad job and looked for somewhere more appropriate to develop their flats.

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!  LEAVE A COMMENT.

(You won't have to give any personal information if you do).

The Full Application

Well, it's all up there now.  Full details of the new application are now available on the Stafford Borough Council website.  If you want to take a look at all the documents, you can use the link in the side panel on this page.  For those of you who don't then here is a quick summary.

The application proposes eight "dwellings" (houses to you and me).   There are two rows comprising four houses in each, set either side of an access road which would run from Stone Road to the rear of the site (what is currently the car park).  The access road would be "unadopted" which presumably means that the Borough Council won't have any responsibility for its upkeep.

The houses are three storeys high.  The groundfloor consists of an integral garage, kitchen/ diner, utility and lounge.

The first floor comprises three bedrooms and a bathroom.  On the second floor (ie. the roof void) there are two more bedrooms making five bedrooms in all.

And that's about the size of it.  We are currently studying these plans in detail.  In the meantime, if you have any thoughts you want to share, either make a comment or drop us a line using the link on the right hand side of the page.

One final thing, according to the Staffsbc website, consultation letters have been sent out so we should be getting them any day now.

Happy reading.

New Planning Application

The new planning application in respect of the George & Dragon has now been submitted. It's for "eight dwelling units".  Unfortunately, there are no plans or other details on the Staffordbc website so we'll have to hold our breath for a little while longer.

The new reference number is 09/12885/FUL.  Use the link in the panel on the right-hand side to go straight to the application.