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News Articles February 2006 -> June 2006 |
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BBC WatchDog Raises Some Serious Questions 07/02/06
A recent BBC Watchdog program highlighted the case where eight houses had been built on contaminated land and nobody seemed to be taking responsibility. The Council claimed that it was the housebuilder's responsibility. However the housebuilder claimed in a statement
"The ground was properly investigated at the time of building back in 1987 and no contamination was present..."
This could not happen on the Bishopton ROF site or could it?
BAG has always maintained that no one knows all of the toxicants that are present on the ROF site and therefore how can you find these toxicants if you don't know what you are looking for.
In a recent newspaper article a BAE spokesman declared that they had taken samples from 600 areas along with 1300 soil samples to determine how the site should be decontaminated. It seems a large quantity of samples until you realise that the site is over 2300 acres.
We are not all scientists. So we are not sure about sampling methods. However if we view this from a more familiar perspective the testing seems woefully inadequate. Imagine for example that the Bishopton ROF site contained treasure instead of chemicals and one brave soul decided to hunt for it. He brought along his metal detector, but on seeing the vast size of site decided he would only check one small patch every 3 acres. After checking 600 patches he found no treasure and declared that there was no treasure present on the site.
Most of us would think that he had little chance of finding the treasure because he was only looking at a small part of the land. However when we find out that the treasure is actually diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, we realise that he had absolutely no chance at all of finding the treasure. He was using the wrong tool.
BAG believes that the sampling proposed by BAE is not sufficient and that since BAE do not know all of the toxicants present on the site, they may not be using tests which will identify all the toxicants.
So if this development goes ahead and contamination rears its ugly head several years later, will the developers be issuing a statement along the lines of "The ground was properly investigated at the time of building back in 2007 and no contamination was present..."
To read Watchdog article click here
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HELP TO WIN THE BATTLE FOR BISHOPTON 1/03/06
BAG would like to say a huge thank you to all those who responded to our last newsletter and sent donations to the "war chest". On behalf of the entire community, we are eternally grateful. However, we need funds to continue the Battle for Bishopton. Until recently, the Action Group has existed on the generosity and goodwill of its members, who have given uncomplainingly of their time and efforts. Now we must obtain the best professional services to advise us on the way forward. If you wish to help us fight against the New Town development and the destruction of our community, please give what you can. Even as little as £5 per household would give us the boost we need, and help us to defeat the greedy developers who wish to put profits before our health and safety.
Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference. Bishopton is your home - if you care, fight for it!
Send your donation to: The Treasurer, BAG, c/o Kilallan, Sachelcourt Ave, Bishopton, PA7 5AA.
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Proposed ROF Housing Development Background Notes 7/03/06
Bishopton Action Group has been working hard to piece together the history of the proposed housing development at ROF site. These background notes make an interesting read. Click here to read notes.
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BAG Questions Process Used for Proposed ROF Development 7/03/06
Bishopton Action Group has written to Mr Bob Darracott, Director of Planning and Transport, questioning why the proposed ROF development is to be processed using an Outline Planning Application rather than through the Local Plan. The Local Plan would offer the opportunity of a public inquiry. The planners and villagers would also be able to have more influence and decide how the development should be planned ( e.g. The plan could state that access to new development would be from Georgetown. Mr Darracott stated that in the Outline Planning Application the developers would decide where the development would be sited within ROF grounds.) Click here to read the letter.
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Action Group Network Fights Back 16/03/06
Bishopton Action Group has recently linked up with Tayport Local Plan Action Group (www.tlpag.supanet.com) for the purposes of sharing information, knowledge and expertise.
Tayport Local Plan Action Group has submitted a very good petition (PE907) to the Scottish Parliament. Bishopton Action Group supports this petition. You can read their petition here.
It seems that the Fife Structure Plan is also paving the way for tens of thousands of houses to be built in the Fife region, while paying scant regard to the concerns of locals. This scenario is very familiar to Bishopton residents. How many other Structure Plans are proposing the same "growth" strategy while ignoring the concerns of locals? Does Scotland really need all this additional housing when its population is in decline? Have the planners, who jumped on the growth strategy bandwagon, got it seriously wrong? Let us hope that the Scottish Executive can take an overview of this situation and put a halt to this planning madness.
One question which continues to perplex Action Groups is why do these planning disputes occur when there is supposed to be a consultation process?
BAG believes the current Planning System has allowed the Planners to become too powerful. There are no checks and balances in the Structure Plan process. Structure Plans are now so long and complicated that even with the best will in the world most Councillors, like most other lay people, would probably find it difficult to interpret these documents. Therefore the Councillors rely on the Planners, who help to write the plans, to also provide them with advice regarding the plans and any objections. Unfortunately this advice is not always impartial nor the best advice available. The end result is that true debate is stifled and local individuals do not get an opportunity to have their objections truly presented to the Councillors. To put it bluntly the whole Structure Plan consultation process is a charade.
Here is how the Structure Plan process worked in Renfrewshire Council:
In other words, the planners vetted any criticism of their own work, the Councillors did not hear all of the facts and there was no independent scrutiny.
End result: a Director of Planning, who had no technical knowledge about decontamination, advised Councillors that Bishopton, the largest contaminated site in UK, should be designated as an area of urban expansion and there was no counter evidence presented stating that this proposal was unsafe and not based on sound facts (as the objectors had submitted). A planning system which allows this situation to occur is deeply flawed and open to abuse.
It is very worrying that objections are "interpreted" for Councillors. Why don't the Councillors actually read the objections instead of reading someone's interpretation? In the case of the proposed development at ROF Bishopton, Bishopton Action Group submitted a very detailed 17 page letter of objection, 2253 standard letters were submitted and 587 of these standard letters contained additional comments, some taking up to a full side of A4 page. A further 25 letters were submitted on the subject In his report to the Planning Board, the Director of Planning interpreted the content of all these letters and condensed all of these objections into approximately half of an A4 page. Some of the topics covered in the letters were not even mentioned in his report. How can the Councillors make a truly informed decision when the information presented to them is so selective? How can the public get their case heard? Can we really trust Planners to have such power?
Not content with controlling the Structure Plan process Renfrewshire Council Planners have come up with an even better ruse. They propose to process the development of 2500 houses at ROF through outline planning permission and to alter the Local Plan retrospectively. That way the proposed development will not be open to independent scrutiny and the local community will have no right of appeal but it ensures that the developers do. It is no wonder that the public have lost trust in the Planners.
The Planners may try to control the situation but Action Groups up and down the country are getting organised, tackling these planning issues head on, fighting for their patch and submitting petitions. The days where planners could submit substandard biased reports to committees are fading fast. It is time for a culture change in the Planning System. Planners must acknowledge that true consultation is the only way forward and they must start consulting the public rather than just paying lip service to the process. In the case of Bishopton the planners must realise that they are not doing their job properly when they receive over 5000 letters of objection related to one small section of a Structure Plan.
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BAG's Comments on Latest CLG Revelations 24/03/06
At the BAE exhibition a year ago, and in the literature published at that time, this is what the developers said was their priority in managing traffic:
"There should be minimal impact on the existing village."
They went on to describe how they would ensure that there would be no adverse impact on the village:
"New link roads to the north and south will divert all traffic serving the new development away from the existing village... This means no additional traffic caused by the development should need to drive through the existing village."
It would now appear that these promises were, to paraphrase Councillor McGuinness, "written in the wind." The developer will not build the new roads in Phase 1 - of course that would be too costly, and we must remember that the only motivating factor driving this development is PROFIT. Nothing else matters, and the inconvenience which will result to Bishopton residents from the traffic from 400 houses using our existing village roads is totally insignificant.
But then should we really be surprised at this, or at the revelation that there will be no community facilities during this first phase (or at any time - because building community facilities does not create profits. By the time the land is made fit for building, there could well be no money available for these non-profit making "extras".)
The number of households in Bishopton (1895 at the 2001 census) will be increased by over 20% and we are getting absolutely nothing to compensate for this. Can you imagine an extra 1000 village population and what that will do to our existing infrastructure and facilities? Let's look again at what the developers "promised" during their PR exercise last February:
"We envisage assisting with rebuilding, expanding or improving the community and health centres."
When they mention the new community facilities, they say:
"These could include a primary school, leisure centre and church or community centre."
No reasonably sane person could think that these vague statements could ever be binding. Those Bishopton spokespersons who, in the early stages, acted in favour of the developers by insisting that the infrastructure and facilities would be provided first, should now HANG THEIR HEADS IN SHAME - THEY HAVE MISLED THE RESIDENTS OF BISHOPTON AND HAVE SOLD US DOWN THE RIVER.
The following quote from the developer's early statements sums up their approach to the new town development:
"Finally, we need to ensure that everything we propose - including the clean up of the land, the road and rail improvements, the community facilities and the open space - are paid for by the revenue from development."
In other words, if the new houses don't generate sufficient profits, we can forget about a new health centre, primary school, access roads etc. It might be worth noting that Redrow has recently reported a 22% drop in profits.
The developers will shortly be submitting their outline planning application - it is imperative that we all object to their proposals to build 400 houses without access roads or community facilities. We can't allow them to destroy our village. If you care about Bishopton, keep up the fight to save it.
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Below are some brief notes from the latest CLG Meeting:-
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We have added a new correspondence page. On this page you will find links to letters which BAG volunteers have written to promote Bishopton's case. Click here to view new page.
One of the letters which you can view is a freedom of information request regarding the Envirocentre Report. BAG has been steadily piecing together the history of events with regard to ROF development and has unearthed some interesting material. Click here to view Freedom of Information Request.
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BAG has written numerous letters, but some of the recipients of these letters have failed to respond within a reasonable amount of time. Some of these letters are extremely important and deserve a prompt response. NB Renfrewshire Council Customer Pledge sets a target of responding within 10 working days. Do their pledges mean nothing?
Update 4 April 2006: We have finally received a reply from both parties named above.
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We have added a new page which details the problems with the access roads proposed for new development. Click here to view new page.
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Objection Letter to Scottish Executive 13/05/06 We are now entering a crucial stage in the planning process. The Third Alteration 2006 to the Structure Plan has now been submitted to the Scottish Ministers who have up to 40 weeks to make their decision on the principle of development of the ROF site. IF THE SCOTTISH MINISTERS DO NOT GIVE THEIR APPROVAL, THE PLANS TO DEVELOP THE ROF SITE MAY NOT PROCEED. It is therefore vital that Bishopton residents express their views again at this vital stage in the decision-making process.
Bishopton Action Group will be distributing and collecting objection forms over the next two weeks, and we urge everyone who is opposed to the plans to complete a form. If you wish more information to help you make up your mind, please visit the rest of our website.
We will place a copy of the form on our website within the next few days.
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BAE Systems exhibition fiasco - vital questions remain unanswered18/05/06
BAE Systems and Redrow have been left in little doubt that there is significant resistance to their development plans for the former Royal Ordnance Factory site at Bishopton, Renfrewshire. They mounted a joint exhibition to explain to the villagers of Bishopton how they plan to develop the former Royal Ordnance Factory site and how the proposals would be presented as a set of planning applications to Renfrewshire Council. The presenters tried to placate the many villagers who attended but without success. Members of the Bishopton Action Group handed out a questionnaire to people entering the exhibition and encouraged them to ask a number of pertinent questions. The attendees were then asked to indicate whether they had received a satisfactory response by ticking a yes or no box for each of the six questions and handing this to a representative after they left the exhibition. Analysis of the returned questionnaires indicates that for 93% of the questions asked, the developers were unable to provide a satisfactory response! This represents a massive vote of "no confidence" in the developers.
In particular, BAE/Redrow representatives seemed to be suffering from "collective amnesia" regarding what they said a year ago at the original exhibition regarding the access roads i.e. that new link roads to the north and south would divert all traffic serving the new development away from the village, so that no additional traffic caused by the development would need to drive through the existing village. Now they have said that no access roads will be built prior to the construction and sale of the first phase of housing. In general, villagers commented that now they don’t know who or what to believe. Many feel that the whole thing should be stopped right away because they don’t want the existing village extended, with a resulting overburdening of the already stretched infrastructure and community facilities. Others felt that the developers had underestimated public opinion, and that the technical details, particularly regarding the important issue of contamination, were unsatisfactory.
Bishopton residents have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the ROF proposals – 92% voted NO to the plans in a referendum organised by the community council last year, and a total of 4,700 letters of objection were sent to the Structure Plan Manager, objecting to the designation of Bishopton as an “Area of Urban Expansion”. This represents a massive level of objection to the proposals to build a New Town development on the doorstep of an existing rural village.
We are now entering a crucial stage in the planning process. The Third Alteration 2006 to the Structure Plan has now been submitted to the Scottish Ministers who have up to 40 weeks to make their decision on the principle of development of the ROF site. IF THE SCOTTISH MINISTERS DO NOT GIVE THEIR APPROVAL, THE PLANS TO DEVELOP THE ROF SITE MAY NOT PROCEED. It is therefore vital that Bishopton residents express their views again at this vital stage in the decision-making process.
Bishopton Action Group will be distributing and collecting objection forms over the next two weeks, and we urge everyone who is opposed to the plans to complete a form.
Click here for instructions on form or to download extra copies
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Objection Letters - Great Team Effort 18/05/06 They collated. They stapled. They folded. They joked. They laughed. In a great party atmosphere a team of volunteers worked hard and within a few hours a 4 feet high pile of paper was transformed into packs of objection letters ready for our volunteers to deliver. What a team! Well done to everyone involved!
Within the next few days our intrepid volunteers will be pounding the streets delivering objection letters to every household in Bishopton so that everyone can have a chance to object to the Third Alteration to Structure Plan 2000. We urge everyone in Bishopton to take the opportunity to make their views known to the Scottish Executive.
If you require spare copies of the objection letter, you can download a copy of letter by clicking here. The file is in PDF format and you will need to have Adobe Reader installed on your machine so that you can open it. You can download a free version of ADOBE reader from Adobe website.
Instructions about objection letter can found on Scottish Executive page on our site
Structure Plan Documents Here is a link to the Structure Plan Joint Committee website where you can read the documents. Alternatively a copy of the Structure Plan has been delivered to Bishopton library, although this copy is for reference only.
If you have any queries, Contact Us here
Thank you to all our volunteers.
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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 9/06/2006 Another 2000 letters of objection have been submitted, making a grand total of almost 7000 letters of objection to the Alteration to the Structure Plan so far. This is a fantastic achievement for the volunteers who have worked so hard. We would like to thank all of the volunteers for the time and effort which they have put into this. We would also like to thank the Bishopton residents who have submitted the thousands of letters of objection. You have given us a huge mandate to continue to oppose the development at the ROF.
Bishopton Action Group also delivered a massive 365 page submission comprising of four bound volumes. Many nights were spent burning the midnight oil to produce this tome. Well Done to all involved.
The picture below shows Janette Waller handing over Bishopton Action Group’s submission to Mr Purves of the Scottish Executive (Click on picture to view enlarged image)
It was an exciting day with radio and press interviews. Picture below shows Tony Sowersby as he awaits his radio interview at the BBC in Edinburgh. (Click on picture to view enlarged image)
It has been a mammoth task completed in a very short period of time. A great team effort once again.
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EnviroCentre Report (Freedom of Information) 13/06/06
We are slowly piecing together the real story behind the proposed development at ROF. Under the Freedom of Information Act we applied for information on the EnviroCentre report. The information returned raises a few questions about the actions of Renfrewshire Council officials.
See the EnviroCentre FOI page on this website
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Outline Planning Application 14/06/06 BAE Systems/Redrow submitted an outline planning application on 8 June 2006, which was the day before the Structure Plan consultation period ended. In their unseemly haste they sent out incorrect information on neighbour notifications. BAG has been trying to find out more information and has produced a report. Click here to view report
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BISHOPTON DAY SUCCESS – "It's in the BAG" 24/06/06
On Saturday morning the flags were flying heralding a great day ahead. BAG members were up at the crack of dawn to erect the tent, set up our stall and display all the prizes. Bishopton residents amazed us by their kindness in donating a selection of wonderful prizes to be handed out to winners at our "It's in the BAG" stall – these included expensive bottles of malt whisky, liqueur, champagne, cuddly toys, hanging baskets, perfume and toiletries. In fact we became very popular, as word quickly spread through the crowd that people had a better-than-average chance of purchasing a winning ticket at the BAG stall! Visitors to our stall also had the opportunity to read our objection to the Alteration to the Structure Plan and view photographs of BAG members presenting the 2,000 letters of objection to Dr, Purves (Principal Planner at the Scottish Executive) submitted by Bishopton residents during the last consultation round.
We were heartened by the generosity of Bishopton people, and by the many expressions of support we received on the day. Everyone seemed delighted to be helping in some small way in the fight to save our community. It is events such as these that remind us what a wonderful place we live in, and how important it is to preserve the great community spirit and village way of life that we currently enjoy.
A special thank you also to the small team of BAG members who worked so hard in the background to organise the event, and who contributed their time and effort on the day to making it such a great success. Congratulations to all who took part – they even managed to persuade the rain to stay away! They also raised a substantial sum for our fighting fund.
If you didn’t manage to attend on Bishopton Day (you missed a great day out!) and would like to make a donation, please send it to: The Treasurer, BAG, c/o Kilallan, Sachelcourt Avenue, Bishopton PA7 5AA
ALL DONATIONS NO MATTER HOW SMALL WILL HELP TO WIN THE BATTLE FOR BISHOPTON AND WILL BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED
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Outline Planning Documents on the Council Website 26/06/06 Renfrewshire Council has finally published BAE's outline planning application for the ROF site. Click here to go to the web page on Renfrewshire Council's website.
There are quite a few documents and some of them are very large. We recommend that you start by looking at the Master Plan. This document is not too large and is easy to read and understand.
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copyright: Bishopton Action Group || design and support from 3dc.org.uk via InBishopton.org.uk
