Food For Thought.

At some point we are going to have to address the points raised by Cllr Miller, including the claim about public consultation, of which there hasn’t been much to date.  Note the emphasis on keeping developers sweet throughout this process. In writing to the Chronicle to thank them for the publicity provided by their article, I included the following:

We were interested in the piece by Cllr Miller on the same subject and have plenty to say about it.  However, we’re going to hold back on commenting on it for now, to avoid your readers getting Green Belt Fatigue.  In the meantime, it would be interesting to know what your readers further south know about what’s going on..

It’s not just the land between the M1 and Pogmoor/Gawber/Higham/Redbrook/Barugh Green that’s under threat.  We have also learned that similar activity is under way at Junction 36 of the M1, again between the council and “interested parties”. We doubt that many residents of Tankersley, Pilley, Birdwell, Hoyland Common and Hoyland are aware of this, which could involve up to 3200 houses on estates as big as 500 plus, and massive disruption around the motorway junction and down the bypass for years to come.

I was reminded about this earlier today, when I was walking around Wentworth.  From the high ground above the village, you can see north to Hoyland, Jump and over to Wood Walk on the way to Wombwell.  If housing identified in the SHLAA exercise comes about, a lot of the green patchwork I could see from my vantage point will disappear.  The Tuscan Hill Village looming on the horizon over Jump stands well, though.

Regards,