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Garden Street 2010

Monday, 5 July 2010

The following is from the No to Garden Street Website posted today

NEW in 2010! Revised planning application? But the development agreement with the Council is definitely cancelled! Those of you with ears to the ground will have heard rumours that the developer is about to submit a revised application for the site. How has this happened, and what has the Action Group been doing since last year to forestall that possibility?

Well, on 5th June 2009 we wrote to Calderdale Council asking them to withdraw the development agreement which gives the developer access to the council-owned site, and the original cause of the whole problem. We reasoned that, without the site owner’s agreement to hand it over for development, a planning permission would be almost pointless. But until today, more than one year later and despite repeated reminders, we’ve had no reply!

So is the development agreement still operative or not? After renewed pressure the Action Group finally has the answer:

"The developer, and its solicitor, was given notice, in a letter dated 23rd June 2009, that the Development Agreement was terminated with immediate effect and nothing, that I am aware of, has affected that position" Ian Hughes, Head of Democratic and Partnership Services (Chief Legal Officer) 5th July 2010

Apparently there was some argument from the developer that they could claim that the agreement was still operative whilst they submitted a ‘free revised planning application’, but the Council has not accepted that interpretation.

The Action Group is greatly reassured that the Council kept the promise made by the then Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder in June 2009 — that "It is obvious people in Hebden Bridge don’t want what was being proposed", and that "the council was under no obligation to deal any further with Hebden Royd Development LLP … There is no legal reason to continue with the scheme" ( see Halifax Courier article four items below) — but it’s just a bit odd that it took them 13 months to tell us this.

We’ve now also been promised a meeting to discuss what the Council intends to do next. We’ll keep you posted.

See also

No to Garden Street Website

HebWeb Garden Street Feature - giving the background and history of the resistance to this controversial, proposed development

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