Group continues attack on council over sports centre site (From Bucks Free Press)

more a case of not in my road ???????????

retchub wrote:
more a case of not in my road ???????????

Open your eyes & your mind

Arrogant, self centred, pathetic posh scums opposing crucial resources that are so essentially needed because they want their single posh road to retain extortionately high house prices ! This is just a case of "not on my door-step" just as retchub said. Daws Hill Lane residents should be ashamed of themselves participating in this self-indulged, "Daws Hill neighbourhood" clan...just as the name suggests that they are only afore the residents of the Daws Hill Lane and do not give a toss about anybody else that may benefit from the developments. This contradicts their own statement that
"We all want the best for the wider community and yet WDC seems to want to ignore everything we in the electorate, who live in the area and therefore have the real local knowledge, suggest.” as just in the very next statement it is stated ; "Mr Armstrong has complained about being given a small slot to make DHNF’s concerns to WDC about the impact the new sports centre - and the mooted housing development on the former RAF Daws Hill base - would have on the surrounding infrastructure and land. "
What a load of farce from stuck-up, selfish greedy gits !

This is all very reminiscent of the days when Councillor Leslie Clarke was in power. Not listening to her electorate.

6 minutes to provide details of any objections is significantly different from the many months that the current councillors have had to formulate and submit their plans.

I am also surprised that WDC are even considering these plans, as they are cutting back on so many services elsewhere. Who’s going to pay for all this?

This isn’t a democratic process. The local people are once again being ridden roughshod by our elected dictators.

When’s the next election?

Has Daws Hill been renamed Nimbyland?

Get over it, you lot didn't mind when the new High Heavens Stinking Dump Site was created, nor did you help anyone else in Bucks.

Time to get a can of Shut The Feck Up and go away.

Nimby's, gotta hate them!

It's still a bad plan with some terrible ideas, no matter whose house it is close to.

Look at the Plan, not the neighbours raising the issue.

Do you really want 2000 extra cars each day from the Handy Cross developments clogging up Fair Ridge, Marlow Hill, A404, J4, Marlow Road….?

Do you really want 1000 extra cars each day from the RAF Daws Hill development doing the same?

No convincing evidence has been tabled to show that this extra traffic can be handled effectively. Welcome to gridlock!

Did you know that Handy Cross currently exceeds the permitted pollution levels? The development will worsen this with buses and coaches, cars and a wood-burning heating facility, yet WDC want to go ahead. Is it responsible to risk the health of citizens?

Do we need a huge increase in office space, when so much remains unused in the town centre, Cressex, Loudwater…?

Do we really need another hotel? I see no evidence of such demand.

Do we really need another large food store – as big as Sainsburys in Marlow? Won’t this strip business from the town centre, an issue on which the proposals were suspiciously silent?

This is not about NIMBYism; it’s about getting a desirable development right, properly considered, planned sympathetically and not worsening the lives of everyone who lives in, or passes through the area.

Demand a public enquiry and get this right!

There is no doubt that the Handy Cross **SPORTS** centre needs modernisation.

Part of the redevelopment of Handy Cross will require that the running track be relocated. WDC's bright idea is to put this on green belt land (yes, that's right, green belt land) at Little Marlow in the gravel pits, separating the athletics and swimming facilities. How can this be justified? The application will create a crowded site with a leisure centre tucked away in a corner, 5 large office blocks (4 or 5 floors each), a supermarket, an hotel and large public transport interchange and associated car parking.

As KTinBucks says, the supermarket at Handy Cross will be the size of Sainsbury's in Marlow (quite large), and WDC officers' report on this development application says quite clearly that locating it here instead of closer to the town centre (think the old Gas Works site) will attract customers away from supermarkets in the town centre, which may lead to Tesco closing. However, that is deemed to be OK because WDC will receive nearly £420K in Community Infrastructive Levy (CIL) payments from the supermarket at the Handy Cross site. This CIL payment is euphemistically termed 'to be a matter in favour of development' in the WDC officers report. On what basis is this a matter in favour of the development?

Locating an hotel on the site is not included in WDC's core strategy document for Handy Cross; there are two hotels that have been built in the town centre recently; there are existing hotels on the other side of Handy Cross and in Marlow, none of which are near capacity - you can always book a room at one or other of these hotels, and it appears that permission has been granted for another hotel on Desborough Avenue.

The new 3, 4 or 5 story office blocks will be a blot on the landscape. Not many people realise that the other side of the M40 motorway is an Area of Outstanding Natural (Chilterns AONB), but the detrimental impact of this development on views from the AONB are deemed acceptable in the WDC officers' report. Furthermore, the privacy of residents on the edge of the development will be compromised. retchub, EssexBlur and RenegadeJ007 would I am sure be delighted to have people in the offices overlooking into their bedrooms and gardens, increased air, noise and light pollution, and have to wait for 30 or 40 minutes in the traffic in the morning or afternoon just to be able to get to the Handy Cross roundabout to be able go to their place of work.

I say again, there is no doubt the site should be modernised, but this application should simply not be allowed happen in its current form. Including the points KTinBucks makes, there are at least 5 counts on which this application fails WDC's own policies and strategies. If it goes ahead, a precedent will once more have been set, which could have bigger impacts in the years to come on precious green belt land and AONB. The application should be rejected, and the developers (who are WDC by the way!) should be asked to address and resolve all these issues satisfactorily and in accordance with policies and regulations in place.

Old Chinese proverb: Be careful what you wish for. You may get it!

When the site was bought by WDC it had a covenant on it that forbade any commercial development. Sports ok but commercial no.
Did that stop them? Oh no, they just got the lawyers on to it to find a legal loophole and they can now pack the site with several stories of brick and concrete. Even the "pond" turns out to be just a roundabout on the road.
P2P

Car parking spaces for the Sports Centre 15% less than at present: the running track detached from the Centre and sent down to Marlow despite the fact that sports facilities feed on each other: another supermarket in an area abundantly supplied with supermarkets: a 150 bed hotel in an area where 3 hotels have opened in the past 5 years: 850 parking spaces provided for 36.000sq m of office space sufficient to house for 1600-1800 employees : the estimate of the additional traffic count from this and the redeveloped RAF site and the effect at rush hours on the A404 and the Handy Cross Roundabout.
Have the Council released their estimated traffic figures which I understand local resident associations have continually requested but been denied? And is it true that as a last resort Freedom of Information was invoked.

The propose development raises many questions and we the residents and rate payers of High Wycombe will have to live with the result, not a cheering prospect.

Did everyone, as Cllr McCarthy claims, have 6 minutes to express their views? I heard that local residents were allowed only half that time.

Car parking spaces for the Sports Centre 15% less than at present: the running track detached from the Centre and sent down to Marlow despite the fact that sports facilities feed on each other: another supermarket in an area abundantly supplied with supermarkets: a 150 bed hotel in an area where 3 hotels have opened in the past 5 years: 850 parking spaces provided for 36.000sq m of office space sufficient to house for 1600-1800 employees : the estimate of the additional traffic count from this and the redeveloped RAF site and the effect at rush hours on the A404 and the Handy Cross Roundabout.
Have the Council released their estimated traffic figures which I understand local resident associations have continually requested but been denied? And is it true that as a last resort Freedom of Information was invoked.

The propose development raises many questions and we the residents and rate payers of High Wycombe will have to live with the result, not a cheering prospect.

Did everyone, as Cllr McCarthy claims, have 6 minutes to express their views? I heard that local residents were allowed only half that time.

Cllr McCarthy has form for acting in questionable ways, I couldn't possibly say undemocratic but he was banned for some time after his attempts to get the running track moved from Handy Cross to Hazlemere, as reported in BFP 25 Jan 2010.