Planning matters

Ward surgery tonight was unusually busy with a number of people worried about the possibility of 1000 dwellings going up on the old MOD site, Allen's West.  As always, it's not so much the fact that more building would happen as the effect on traffic.  Local people know that the traffic on Durham Lane can be horrendous, but when we say to council officers that there's a problem we always seem to get the same answer - the road can take more vehicles.  The problem is Yarm High St which can't be resolved by anything a developer in Eaglescliffe does, or that's the story.  Understandably, Eaglescliffe people do treat that with a degree of scepticism.  However, the whole discussion led on to a very interesting discussion on the possibility of producing a Community Plan under the umbrella of the localism bill.  And from that came the idea that more people need to be involved in having a voice in the area, including the Parish Council.  So one or two different people might stand for election in May and some new ideas might come forward, and all because a developer is proposing something which seems completely out of character in the area and isn't wanted by many of the people living here already.  Such is community politics.