Belmont Meadow

I notice that Belmont Councillors are reported in the Advertiser to be campaigning to stop any of Belmont Meadow built on.

My recollection was that they had said they were opposed to housing on the site, but would accept a Doctor's surgery.

Have they changed their minds?

The Council has mishandled this issue for years.

The land for sale has been designated for building purposes as community land for many years, when the houses nearby had not even been built themselves however instead of fencing the site, the Council allowed the housing built near it to be developed and naturally the newcomers want to keep land near them open and pull up the drawbridge for those following them. Their self-interest is quite natural, but could have been reconciled if the Council had fenced the site much earlier and they knew it was for building purposes onh the day they moved in.

Indeed after the last debate on this site in 2002 when the Belmont Councillors said they supported a surgery, I suggested fencing the site then, however the Lib Dems chose not to take this up.

No doubt we will now have a series of debates on:

a) The approval of a planning application

b) The sell-off of the site with planning permission.

Much of the heat of this debate could have been avoided if the fencing had been done at the time as then people would be clear which land had always been identified for building purposes. Perhaps lessons will be learned with other sites the Council will in due course dispose of, but I am sceptical!