Letter: Crawley housing anxiety
Last week I and a number of other councillors attended the borough council’s State of the Borough event at the Civic Hall in order to listen to the views of residents. During the evening the large number of people from all over Crawley who were there were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with various statements.
Due to the wonders of modern hand-held technology we saw instant results. In the course of a series of propositions on future housing needs, people were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement – ‘Not all open space can be protected.’ I was very struck by the high level of disagreement, as I believe was the leader of the council Bob Lanzer. It was 58 per cent.
My interpretation of this is not that people are opposed to house building in Crawley going forward but that they do not want the council to scour the town looking for every last plot of green open space it owns in residential areas where a few homes might possibly be built. A classic example of this unpopular approach was the council Cabinet’s decision just before Christmas to give the go ahead for development proposals to be worked up for a small area of green open space at Ely Close in Tilgate. This was despite strong local opposition from residents, many of whom like me would not be opposed to the building of homes on ‘brownfield’ sites such as the former Thomas Bennett and Desmond Anderson school grounds.
In view of Tilgate residents’ opposition, following the straw poll at the Civic Hall and noting Cllr Lanzer’s statements of how seriously he takes opinions expressed at State of the borough, I have written to him and councillors Claire Denman and Lee Gilroy asking them to reverse their decision. Doing so now would save hundreds of people who live in Ely Close, Oxford Road, Winchester Road and Worcester Road in particular the great anxiety and worry they will inevitably otherwise experience in the coming months.
Cllr Colin Lloyd, Crawley Borough Council (Labour, Tilgate
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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AdamBrown
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 06:27 PMSo what Cllr Lloyd is saying is that 1) We need to build more houses, 2) People believe we can protect every piece of green land in the borough. I understand that Cllr lloyd is just doing his job of representing his constituants and it is not my place to say if it is Nimbyism or not, all I question is why he thought it would help his case to start his letter with a paradox.
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