Statement to Cabinet by Councillor Mark Hubbard regarding wisdom of proceeding with consultation on Core Strategy

At the Cabinet meeting on 15th September, Its Our County group leader, Cllr Mark Hubbard, pushed for answers on key issues concerning the forthcoming consultation on our Core Strategy.

Cllr Hubbard requested that the reasons for rejecting the preferred option for Hereford should be given. Currently the Council’s Background Paper acknowledges rejection of the housing growth numbers only, while the ‘Movement Policy’ (Relief Road) and the City Centre Policy (ESG plans) were also overwhelmingly rejected: 89%, 86% and 76% respectively .

He warned of the implications of failing to consider alternatives to road building,  in connection with both the LDF and likely damage to the River Wye Special Area of Conservation.  On each of these counts there is a serious risk that the plan may fail if the law relevant is applied.

He raised his concern that the Council’s intensive investigation of variants on an Eastern alignment (called ‘East is Best’) coupled with its failure to give equal consideration to the alternative to road building proposed by transport consultants MTRU only increased the risk that the plan would be judged unsound.

He asked for uncertainties over water quality and supply, sewage treatment capacity, air quality, economic viaiblity and infrastructure delivery should be resolved before the people of Herefordshire were once again asked to comment on the plan.

Download  his full statement here.

Questions? Questions! welcomes a fresh start with newly elected council

Time to get back down to business!

Herefordshire’s newly elected council has its first meeting on Friday May 27th.  The Conservatives remain in overall control with 30 councillors.  Independents have 14. The brand new It’s Our County party has 9, Liberal Democrats 3 and the Green Party and Labour 1 each.

Questions? Questions! is marking the new council’s first meeting with its first report, “A ‘Relief’ Road for Hereford — or Not???”.  The report examines the council’s case for one of most the contentious elements of the Local Development Framework and builds on the group effort in putting questions to council meetings and under Environmental Information and Freedom of  Information regulations. The report is available from our new ‘Reports’ page.

We are looking forward to expanding our horizons by beginning to submit questions to committees and working for greater co-operation, openness and accountability from the new Herefordshire Council.

Questions? Questions! latest developments

Questions? Questions! is growing and learning.  Everything we learn sheds light on the relationship between the Council and the people of the County.

The process of putting questions to the Council is not particularly easy. (Have a look at the ‘Rejected Questions’.) Questions have to be quite simple, which can entail a process of negotiation to ensure that the question is simple enough.

One consequence of having to put simple questions is that trying to fathom out complex issues requires many separate questions, and therefore many people have to get involved.  Another is that getting answers will become very protracted, lasting over several council meetings = several months.

In addition, after our second effort, it now seems that 1) providing the name, postal address and email address of the questioner and 2) informing the questioner and the Council simultaneously that the question has been submitted is not enough to establish that QQ’s approach is ‘cricket’ (as one QQer put it). That is, we cannot be trusted.

While it must be the case that there are plenty of transactions with the Council in which one party acts on behalf of other parties, the Council’s legal services department has now determined that QQ cannot act as an agent for individuals who wish to put questions to the Council.  Future questions will have to be submitted directly by the questioners.

However it appears that QQ can (and will apparently have to) act as an agent for the Council by disseminating its replies back to questioners.

The effect of all this is to make co-operation in submitting questions more difficult.

We have been promised a list of bullet points on how to put acceptable questions.  To make life easier for everyone we will explore the possibility of having as many questions as possible vetted in advance by the Council’s legal department.

When our argument over the rejected questions was itself rejected, we were told ‘the questions can, should you wish, be directed to officers for answers outside the Council meeting process.’

Well of course they can! which is why we are pursuing questions through Environmental Information Regulations and posting the results on this website. We will also pursue questions through this avenue when the Council’s answer does not provide the factual information the questioner has sought.

However, answers secured ‘outside the Council meeting process’ do not become a matter of the official Council record through the minutes of their meetings.

Whose interests does that serve?

Sustainability and Resilience for Herefordshire

Sustainability and Resilience for Herefordshire — Engaging with the planning system at a time of rapid change and uncertainty

A day-long planning workshop – 12th February 2011 in Hereford

You might not think you’re interested in planning … but if you’re interested in Herefordshire’s local jobs and industries, in where houses are built, in how we travel, in where we source our energy from and what we do with our waste – then you probably are!

Or over the last few years you may have been involved with responding to the various stages of the county’s Local Development Framework, ‘Shaping our Place 2026′.

And you may be wondering what’s next, given major changes in national planning system law.

If so, Sustainability and Resilience for Herefordshire may be of use to you.

A group of local and regional organisations will be holding a one-day workshop on planning for a sustainable and resilient Herefordshire on Saturday 12th February 2011 at the Shire Hall, Hereford.

This intensive workshop will explore how local people in Herefordshire can influence and shape the statutory planning processes in the county and how they can ensure that sustainability and resilience are embedded in future plans.

The day is designed enable ordinary citizens to get involved in planning the long-term social, environmental and economic wellbeing of Herefordshire and its people.

The workshop will include:

• expert input from the Town and Country Planning Association with a special focus on the implications of changes to the planning system under the new Decentralisation and Localism Bill – contributed by Dr Hugh Ellis, the TCPA’s Chief Planner and well known for inspiring people to see why planning matters and what they can do.

• economic localisation skills from Localise West Midlands

• coverage of key (and contentious) planning issues in Herefordshire, with contributions from the local community.

The aims of the workshop are to:

1. skill people up to influence the next stages of the local plan process, using an evidence based approach and taking into account the latest developments in both the local and the national planning system and

2. explore how alternative, community-led approaches grounded in sustainability and resilience might be advanced, including using the new neighbourhood planning ideas in the new planning system.

A small charge of £10 will be payable to contribute towards event costs, but this can be waived if it is unaffordable for anyone.

There will be an optional follow-up meeting to take the results further for those interested in working together on both engagement in the LDF process and on planning for positive alternatives.

We advise early booking for this event.  Please visit:

http://sureherefordshire.wordpress.com to book your place

Or contact Karen Leach at Localise West Midlands <karen@localisewestmidlands.org.uk>

This workshop has been organised by Herefordshire Friends of the Earth, Herefordshire in Transition Alliance, Cycle Hereford, Hereford Civic Society, Herefordshire New Leaf and Localise West Midlands, with support from the Town and Country Planning Association.

Welcome to Questions? Questions!

Questions? Questions! is trying to make sense of Herefordshire Council’s Local Development Framework, including especially the Core Strategy and the Preferred Option for Hereford on which the Core Strategy depends. Why is road building sacred to Herefordshire Council?  Why do we have to have so many houses?  What will the impact of both road and housing be?

We are certain that asking questions and getting answers will result in a better, more meaningful and more sustainable plan for Herefordshire.  The effort people made in November 2010 has already had some impact and the Council’s replies so far to the questions we put show that it was indeed useful to put them.  Please visit our ‘Answers’ page and ‘Questions submitted so far’ to see for yourselves.  Even when the answer is flannel, it is flannel on the record!