Orton Wistow Residents Strongly Oppose Access Road Proposal

Councillor Julie Howell (centre) with Orton Wistow residents

UPDATE: APPLICATION WITHDRAWN!

Following a huge public outcry, the developer and the city council have confirmed that the application has been withdrawn and a fresh application that will not include plans for an access road between Lynchwood and Wistow Way will be submitted. 

Read more on the Peterborough Telegraph website.

What going on?

A few weeks ago I began to receive phone calls and emails from residents of Orton Wistow. They were all very concerned by some information they had received about an outline planning proposal for changes to Lynchwood Business Park, that would include the creation of an access road linking a car park within Lynchwood to Wistow Way. The exit point on Wistow Way would be directly opposite Napier Place Sheltered Housing and just along the road from Orton Wistow Primary School.

Concerned, I had a look at the plans and very quickly began to understand why the residents who had got in touch with me were so worried.

To begin with, only residents of Svenskaby got in touch. This was because they had received through their doors a notification from the council to let them know about the proposal and inviting them to comment as part of a formal consultation. However, Wistow is a close community, and pretty soon alarm had spread from one street to the next.

Quite apart from being a city councillor, I have twenty years of experience as a policy officer and campaigns manager. My immediate reaction to the situation was to address the concern and confusion by making sure that all Wistow residents had access to the facts.

I let the Peterborough Telegraph know that the proposal was causing great worry to residents, spoke live on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Breakfast Show.

A very public meeting

On Tuesday 19th June, I called a public meeting so that residents who had concerns about the proposal could hear from one another and I could hear from them. To my astonishment, 650 residents attended the meeting, which was hosted by Orton Wistow Primary School (thank you to head teacher Simon Eardley for that).

650 residents attended the public meeting to express how they feel about the proposed access road

650 is an incredible turnout by any standard. The vast majority of those who attended are not in favour of the access road. Many expressed concerns about road safety, noise, destruction of tree belt, pollution and irreparable damage to the unique character of Orton Wistow.

Where can I view the plans?

You can view the proposal on the city council's planning portal at https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/council/planning-and-development/planning-and-building/search-applications/. Search for planning application 18/00923/OUT. When you have found the application, click on 'Documents' and then on 'See Associated Documents' to view the details of the proposal.

The screen looks something like this
(documents are being added all the time)

How can I comment on the proposal?

The city council is currently running a public consultation and your comments are very welcome. Just visit the online planning portal and once you have the details of the application on screen click on the 'Comments' tab to leave your feedback.

The consultation remains open until 10 July 2018.

If you know someone who wants to comment but who doesn't have access to the internet, they can send their comment by post to the case officer Mrs J MacLennan at Peterborough City Council, Town Hall, Bridge Street, Peterborough PE1 1HF quoting application reference 18/00923/OUT.

What should I write in my comments?

What you write is up to you. However, the following tips may help.

• Important: start by writing whether you support or object to the proposal
• Use your own words, don't copy someone else's comments
• Write about the impact the proposed access road would have on you and your family
• Ask everyone in your household to write in separately

Things you might like to write about

Character: Orton Wistow is a quiet, safe residential area. The introduction of business park traffic onto Wistow Way is inappropriate, out of character and potentially dangerous.

Access: Emergency vehicles may not be able to get through gridlocked traffic.
Napier Place Sheltered Housing regularly requires emergency vehicle traffic.
Moving the bus stops discourages residents from Napier Place from using public transport.
Some Napier Place residents will not be able to walk the extra distance if the bus stops are moved.
The proposal to move the school's four parking bays will exacerbated the traffic problems at the start and end of the school day.
The access road will act as a 'rat run' between Wistow Way and Lynchwood Business Park.

Health: Emissions from queuing traffic on Wistow Way are harmful.
There will be additional harmful emissions due to the additional traffic on Wistow Way.
Road noise will be increased.

Safety: Pedestrians (including children and older people) will be forced to cross at the busy Napier Place junction to reach the bus stop and parking bays.
Additional traffic will travel around the whole of Wistow Way as more vehicles will access the other end of Wistow Way to get to the access road.
Risk from blind overtaking parked vehicles on the bend if parking bays are moved there.

Traffic: Additional traffic could block Wistow Way while traffic queues on Oundle Road could block that too.
Traffic exiting from Wistow Way will have to give way to traffic at Lynchwood.
There will be delays at the blind corner due to cars parked in the (moved) parking bays and the (moved) bus stop.

Appearance: Loss of trees will open up views of a large car park and five-storey office buildings.
The tree belt serves as a 'buffer' between the residential estate and the business park. Part of the tree belt will be destroyed to create the access road.

And if you'd like to get a bit more technical... Policies affected by the development

National Planning Policy Framework - Section 4 - Promoting Sustainable Transport

All developments that generate significant amounts of movement should be supported by a Transport Statement or Transport Assessment. Plans and decisions should take account of whether:

• the opportunities for sustainable transport modes have been taken up depending on the nature and location of the site, to reduce the need for major transport infrastructure;
• safe and suitable access to the site can be achieved for all people;
• improvements can be undertaken within the transport network that cost effectively limit the significant impacts of the development. Development should only be prevented or refused on transport grounds where the residual cumulative impacts of development are severe.

Peterborough Planning Policies DPD (2012) - PP12 - The Transport Implications of Development

Permission will only be granted if appropriate provision has been made for safe access by all user groups and there would not be any unacceptable impact on the transportation network including highway safety. 

Peterborough Local Plan 2016 to 2036 (Submission) - LP13 - Transport

a) New development should ensure that appropriate provision is made for the transport needs that it will create including reducing the need to travel by car, prioritisation of bus use, improved walking and cycling routes and facilities. 
b) The Transport Implications of Development - Permission will only be granted where appropriate provision has been made for safe access of all user groups and subject to appropriate mitigation.
c) Parking Standards - permission will only be granted if appropriate parking provision for all modes of transport is made in accordance with standards.

The Transport Implications of Development
Planning permission for development that has transport implications will only be granted if:
a) appropriate provision has been made for safe, convenient and sustainable access to, from and within the site by all user groups, taking account of the priorities set out in the LTP; and
b) following appropriate mitigation the development would not result in a residual cumulative severe impact on any element of the transportation network including highway safety.

Thank you

I would like to thank the many hundreds of Orton Wistow residents and people who travel to Orton Wistow regularly (e.g. parents whose children attend Orton Wistow Primary School) for attending the public meeting, responding to the consultation and making others aware of it; the 12 residents who distributed leaflets for me; Simon Eardly, Head Teacher, Orton Wistow Primary School for use of meeting rooms; Luke Moore for invaluable research; members of Peterborough Green Party. More names will be added here!

A Historic Night for Orton Waterville, Peterborough, you and me

Whoops.

No false modesty, I genuinely wasn't expecting to win. Not this year. My team and I were fully prepared to come a very respectable second. So when the voters of Orton Waterville ward elected me as your new city councillor with more than 50% of the vote we honestly were lost for words.

Elections are really difficult to win, especially if you're in a small local party with very little in the way of resources and have never won a seat in the city before. What's more, a week prior to the election our hallowed local paper the Peterborough Telegraph said that all sitting Conservatives were expected to keep their seats. No one said anything about the possibility of a historic landslide win to a Green Party candidate who had never won an election before.

The result in full

Look! A little sliver of green!

How did this happen? 

Hard work and high visibility. In the last couple of weeks leading up to the election we knew we were doing okay as high numbers of residents were telling me and my team that I am the only politician who knocks on their door throughout the year and the only local politician who takes the trouble to communicate with them. For me, communication is obvious and important - I just didn't realise just how important it was to Orton Waterville residents, nor how rarely the other local politicians were doing it.

Another reason for the win was undoubtedly the large turnout of 39%. This may not sound like a very high number, but compared to other wards in the city it is impressive. We can put this down to many people deciding to vote in this election who usually would not and many of these people deciding to vote Green. Residents used to joke that you could stick a blue rosette on a potato in Orton Waterville and it would win. I don't believe that any seat should be 'safe', so my team and I worked hard for over two years to offer residents a genuine alternative. I thought we'd do okay, but I did not expect to leap from an 8% share of the vote to over 50% in a single election. That caught us all by surprise.

And then there are the issues. I'm not talking about Green Party policies. In the Green Party we don't have 'the whip', unlike the other big parties. This means I'm free to speak my mind and to represent my community as I choose. So the issues I'm talking about are the ones that are important to you: the survival of our local post offices, the condition of our roads, fly-tipping, the accessibility of local buses, etc. Because I talk to you over and over I understand what is important to you and have already taken action on many of the issues that concern you.

Just some of the things I've achieved in Orton Waterville ward over the past couple of years

That's about the size of it: hard work, high visibility and offering a genuine alternative (and independent) voice. Those were the three things that inspired the residents of Orton Waterville ward to make history in Peterborough by voting in the first Green Party city councillor that we have ever had. I can't tell you how honoured and humbled I am. My team and I were utterly bewildered by the result. We expected to come second. We really, really did.

I've got to tell you about my team

Elections are won by a hard-working team with a strategy and strong leadership and I can't tell you enough good things about my amazing team. To put sufficient resource behind Orton Waterville meant withdrawing resource from campaigns elsewhere in the city and that is a big ask to make of party members who have been selflessly campaigning in their wards for many years. It takes real sacrifice on the part of many candidates (we stood candidates in all 18 wards this election) to ensure the return (or near return, which was our expectation) of just one councillor. My team wholeheartedly got behind me and gave me, and you, everything they had. You've met many of them when they've been out delivering my leaflets or knocking on doors for me. They're amazing and I could not have done this without them.

The same goes for our many volunteers, residents just like you who deliver my leaflets in their own streets. So many of you championed me and ensured the success that became our new reality on election night. You put posters in your windows, you talked about me to your friends and family members. You turned the tide towards my win. I am so humbled by everything that you did. Humbled and inspired. Thank you.

My incredible team

What next?

I've fought this election campaign for the past two years as if I was already your ward councillor. This means that you can expect from me what you've already grown used to: hard work, high visibility, regular communication. The main difference now is that I have greater access to council resources. If you thought I was effective before I was elected, just wait to see what's coming. I can hardly wait.

My driver is to serve you. This is now my full-time job. My party wants me to be independent so I'm free to represent you the way you wish to be represented. I enjoy knowing many of you and being in constant touch with you. None of this will change now that I've been elected. In fact, expect to see me in your community more and more.

Thank you - I've led a full and rich life with many ups and many downs. But this has made me so proud and I can't wait for what's to come. Together, we'll make Orton Waterville ward an even more wonderful place to live.

Click to enlarge

Standing up for Peterborough

Have you heard about the city council's 'Stand up for Peterborough' campaign?

Read this article on the Peterborough Telegraph website.


It cannot have escaped your attention. Essential services, services that are paid for in part via our council tax, are no longer up to scratch. Our streets are dirty. Housing lists are long. Treasured local services like Orton's bowling club are yet again under threat. What might not be so clear are the reasons why Peterborough City Council is currently experiencing such challenging circumstances.

Council tax just went up by 6% so why is there a problem?

There isn't one single reason for this present financial crisis. Management of the budget has a role to play, as do the decisions taken by city council. However, it is undeniably the case that Peterborough is suffering due to a dramatic cut in the amount of funding the Treasury makes available to our city council.

The problem is a programme of cuts known as 'austerity'. In 2013/14, Peterborough City Council received £55million via a Revenue Support Grant from the Treasury. This grant supports a range of council services. The grant will have reduced to £15million in 2018/19 and then right down to £10million in 2019/20, a reduction of 80% over seven years! It's not fair, not fair at all.

In response, Peterborough City Council Leader Cllr John Holdich launched a public campaign 'Stand up for Peterborough' on 30 November 2017, the aim of which is to garner local public support and to then lobby the Treasury for an increase in funding. If you haven't heard of this campaign you are not alone. I don't think many local residents in Orton have heard about it and from what I've heard support from the public has been slow to catch on.

My background is in campaigning for disabled people's rights. I understand why the city councillors feel that the 'Stand up for Peterborough' campaign should be effective. I also understand why it's failing to capture the imagination of residents. The trouble is, for a campaign like this to succeed it needs a massive amount of grassroots support, and this is something that very few local councillors in our city have managed to achieve. Essentially, if you want to attract the attention of residents over a particular issue you have to speak to them, clearly and frequently. You cannot suddenly spring a campaign on them out of the blue and expect them to support it. You have to work hard for residents all the time. When you do, then and only then, can you expect them to get on board. This is really basic stuff.

So I went to Westminster

I accompanied Caroline Lucas MP to the Treasury to hand in our letter

I do care about Peterborough. I care a great deal. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. On Wednesday 28th February, when the snow was falling thick and fast in London, I travelled to Westminister. Once there, I met up with Green Party MP Caroline Lucas and together we walked to The Treasury where we handed in a letter for the attention of Phillip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequor.

This is what the letter said:

Rt Hon Philip Hammond, MP

Chancellor of the Exchequer

HM Treasury

I Horse Guards Road                                                   Date: 28 February 2018

London SW1A 2HQ                                                    Ref: ML.C0069.RD.22.02.18

                                               

  

Dear Philip,

Spring Statement 2018 and local government funding

As Green Party councillors and council candidates, we are writing to you, ahead of your Spring Statement on 13 March, to urge you to heed warnings from the Local Government Association (LGA) of real and growing uncertainty about how local services will be funded beyond 2020, and to urgently provide local councils with the money they so clearly need to protect services and restore spending on community and frontline services to sustainable levels.

As the LGA noted in December:

“Local services are facing a £5.8 billion funding gap in 2019/20, as well as a £1.3 billion pressure to stabilise the adult social care provider market today. The additional council tax flexibility – estimated by our analysis to be worth up to £540 million in 2019/20 if all councils use it in both 2018/19 and 2019/20 – is nowhere near enough to meet the funding gap. The Government needs to provide new funding for all councils over the next few years so they can protect vital local services from further cutbacks.

It is extremely disappointing that the Government has again chosen not to address the continuing funding gap for children’s and adult social care. We have repeatedly warned of the serious consequences of funding pressures facing these services, for both the people that rely on them and the financial sustainability of other services councils provide. An injection of new money from central government is the only way to protect the vital services which care for older and disabled people, protect children and support families.”

Indeed, our local experience confirms that the current funding gap presents an existential challenge not only to valued community services, but to essential frontline services such as support for users of adult social care, older people, looked-after children, care leavers, those with disabilities or special educational needs, survivors of domestic violence, and low-income families in crisis. And it is having a deeply negative impact on initiatives needed to improve equality, sustainability and resilience, such as providing genuinely affordable, energy efficient homes, supporting socially necessary bus services, transforming how we collect and sort waste, and public-backed investment in renewable energy. 

This cannot go on. We believe the Government must act now to end this unprecedented and ultimately counter-productive erosion of local government. Strong communities require strong local services to support the most vulnerable and those in temporary crisis. It is vital that essential local services are both protected from further cuts and restored to sustainable levels.

Yours sincerely, 
Julie Howell, Peterborough

Standing up for Peterborough

I am not opposed to Peterborough City Council's 'Stand Up For Peterborough' campaign. However, some of us have always stood up for Peterborough and feel disappointed that the situation has been allowed to get as bad as it has before our city councillors made any effort to inform the rest of us of our city's plight.

I also doubt very much that many of our city councillors really support the campaign. When you visit the campaign website you are offered an opportunity to download a campaign 'frame' to add to your Facebook profile image. To date, I haven't found a single city councillor using it. If they have so little faith in the campaign, why should we lend our support to it?

The MP for Orton (and the rest of the NW Cambs constituency) is Shailesh Vara (rarely seen here but he is pretty responsive on email in my experience). He made a video supporting the 'Stand Up For Peterborough' campaign. When I looked at it just now it only had 28 views, and it's been on YouTube since 27 November 2017. That's not very impressive really, is it? 

My experience of Orton residents is that they are smart, switched on and perfectly able to stand up for themselves. But we can only do this effectively as a community when we know what's going on.

Find out more about Peterborough City Council's 'Stand up for Peterborough' campaign.