WYCHAVON PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING: The meeting of the Wychavon Planning Committee held last Thursday, at which the reapplication by the Evesham and Pershore Housing Association or Rooftop to build affordable housing in Leys Road was due to be heard, was attended by parish councillors Lewis, McClymont, Mobberley and Seager together with chairman Clive Allen who was scheduled to speak on behalf of the village. Also present, and scheduled to speak, was Martin Lawton of Leys Road whose work on behalf of the complainants is well known and greatly appreciated, but when it was found that their total presentation time was three minutes, it was decided that Mr Allen should speak on behalf of both. He spoke very well, focusing his remarks on Rooftop's failure to make a case for the Leys Road plot being treated as a Rural Exception site and pointing out the weaknesses, and errors, in the remarks made by the planning officer who had just done the presentation of the application and its history. He was followed by Rooftop's agent who again rehearsed their reasons for choosing this site and this was accompanied by a surprise showing of a plan for a leisure area alongside the housing development.

When questioned during the discussion which followed, it was said that Rooftop do not as yet own this land but they were confident that the owner will sell it and that they have £40,000 ear-marked for its purchase and development. There has been no mention of this to the parish council and this failure in communication at all stages was one of the complaints made by Cllr Holt. Also there was no mention made of the parish council's strong, detailed, letter of protest sent after the last parish council meeting and it transpired, strangely, that it had been delayed in arriving on the desk of the planning officer whose remarks had opened the case earlier, which meant that councillors had not had an opportunity of reading it prior to this meeting.

This, together with the confusing figures given by the housing officer - figures which failed to become clear even under close questioning - as to the actual need for social housing in the village, appeared to weaken Rooftop's case, especially when it was said by one councillor that the report by the Water Authority left many doubts as to the effectiveness of its proposals in relation to the area concerned. However, when finally put to the vote, the application was passed, though it must be said that it was with a very slim majority and it leaves a number of items still unresolved. The precise wording of the proposal to build reads: 'a residential development comprising four apartments and six two bedroomed, two storey houses, together with new access road and parking areas.'

The parish council's view (as expressed in the delayed letter already referred to) is that the plans as they stand at present will fail to do this and may well make the situation worse. They are far from providing a satisfactory solution. It needs to be said that these plans have not yet been seen and approved by the county council and this, in itself, is a worrying state of affairs. We await developments.