I have been living in this area for some 23 years, so I still count as a new-comer in the eyes of many local residents. Perhaps, therefore, your readers and local politicians will be able to help me resolve a few questions in relation to the proposed Longcroft ‘development’ and other proposals.
The mysteries:
Graham Stuart MP was recently pictured with local football teams bemoaning the shortage of pitches. Longcroft currently has eight such pitches. Where will the developers build the replacement pitches and what will be the fate of the school’s sports centre?
Eight hundred new homes equates to approximately 1500 additional cars. More depending on the wealth and ages of the new inhabitants. The parking and additional roads will be where?
There is talk of a ring road, but national and international experience is that new roads almost immediately gridlock and this does not resolve the use of cars entering the town centre. This might be less of an issue if Beverley and district had a truly efficient, integrated public transport network, but it does not.
Eight hundred new homes = approximately 2,500 new inhabitants. On top of existing proposals, this is enough to swamp existing facilities such as the leisure centre, doctors etc. I assume that the developers will also be paying for such additional facilities?
Having built a hospital and hundreds of other houses on the local flood plains, the Longcroft proposals at least have the intelligence to build on one of the few secure sites in the longer term. These are going to be ‘quality homes’ so the quality people will be safe and dry at least. And the new school? Pushed into the wetlands as were our poorer, medieval ancestors?
There is a huge amount of derelict land in and around Beverley. So why do we have to consume more green-field sites for a science park, petrol station etc?
A small hotel? In addition to the one already proposed? Is this to encourage visitors to the historic town of Beverley whose historic features - such as the market square cobbles - are going to be torn up and the town’s shopping centre gutted by out-of-town development. A visit to Gloucester or many other towns and cities will quickly reveal what the future holds.
And the final mystery? So Britain is really so poor that it is incapable of building decent schools and other facilities through the state. We are then really in a worse state than during the 1940’s and 50’s when schools and hospitals could be built and rebuilt despite the austerity of the post-war era? Perhaps Mr Stuart and the council should push for the re-introduction of rationing?
If this is coherent planning, then it is a true mystery.
C McPherson
Canada Drive
Cherry Burton.