Campaigner hits out at Roger Stone over green belt consultation

A GREEN belt campaigner says he is not surprised that council leader Roger Stone will not taking up an invitation to meet villagers over plans to build 406 new homes.

GREEN belt campaigners say they are not surprised that council leader Roger Stone will not taking up an invitation to meet villagers over plans to build 406 new homes.

Cllr Stone had been invited to attend a public drop-in session in Ravenfield on July 25.

But Cllr Stone, whose ward includes the village, has told Derek Stocks, who is leading the fight against the plans, that he has another engagement that clashes with the 1.30pm consultation session.

 

Mr Stocks said: “It is a great pity, but not unexpected, that Cllr Stone has another engagement because the timing of the meeting during normal office hours means, just like him, that many residents will not be able to participate in this consultation.”

He claimed that Cllr Stone, who lives in another part of the borough, had “not set foot” in the village for over 14 months in the capacity of a constituents’ representative.

Mr Stocks said: “Let’s be certain that in our campaigning, not one person has stated that giving planning permission to green belt land for greedy developers to make huge sums of money is a good thing for the area.

“We have heard comments such as: ‘where will they all find work?’ and ‘what about schools and doctors?’ to name a few, as well as coming across the apathy that ‘this council does what it wants anyway’.”

In an email response to the invitation, Cllr Stone’s  personal assistant, Gillian Frost, said that he would not be able to attend as the drop-in session clashed with an existing engagement.

But she pointed out that the meeting was really intended as a consultation for residents.

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She added: “Cllr Stone has asked me to let you know that he is already aware of the feelings of a number of residents and assumes that this has not changed since the last meeting.”

Mr Stocks claimed that the housing plan is a “done deal.”

He added: “When I asked a council planning officer his standard council response was ‘Well how do you think other people felt when your house was built?’

“To which I replied that ‘It was built in 1899, so I would probably need a medium to find out and how did he think I felt as one of those ‘other’ people?” 

“His somewhat startled response was that if  I could think of anywhere else they could build, I should let the council know.

“So it sounds like a done deal.”

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