Monday, September 25, 2006
Friends of Coatham Common -16th Letter
CHRIS MCGLADE AND THE FRIENDS OF COATHAM COMMONS - 16TH LETTER
“Our aim is to have the coatham enclosure developed entirely for leisure without having the housing”
PROTEST MARCH: SAT 7TH OCTOBER
Meeting at Majuba Road Car Park from 11 .3Oam - Marching at
At our Public Meeting on Tuesday 29’ 2006, 427 people heard the truth about the Coatham Common Links Development. We provided documents taken from the Persimmon Planning Application and other Council Documents which proved the following:
1. We can have a swimming baths without having 359 Persimmon Homes built on our coastline, the Council haven’t attracted enough funding for the leisure facilities. So, as reported in the Evening Gazette, and stated by Cllr. Mike Findley the Council are having to borrow £8m.
The Council have deliberately lied to the people of this Borough by leading them to think, the only way to have a swimming baths is to have the houses. ‘NOT TRUE’, we don’t have to have the houses, because the Council are specifically borrowing £8m pounds. £8m would build a fantastic baths. Why haven’t the Council borrowed this money before now and given the people of this town a swimming baths? Why have we been waiting so long?
2. In the Persimmon planning application, it states that the land in the Coatham Links is contaminated with Cyanide, Arsenic, Mercury & Lead amongst others, all over the safe limit. This Council and Persimmon Hcmes have known this for two years, yet, they’ve never made it public or warned people. They didn’t warn the Archaeologists who dug eight trenches there this summer. Rather than risking the truth about the land coming out, the Council kept it secret and knowingly let these people dig on contaminated soil without following the strict safety procedures set out in the Planning Application. They didn’t even inform the workers from McAlpine who dug away part of the Common last week.
3. There are still, according to the Planning Application, potentially hundreds of unexploded WW2 landmines and a 1,000lb unexploded German bomb under the ground. Not only has Councillor Vera Moody denied this in the Evening Gazette, the Council and Persimmon Homes have never made it public. In the Planning Application, it clearly states that the whole area has to cleaned, before any work begins. Who wants to buy a house on top of a minefield?
4. A trade off had been discussed between this Council and English Nature to restrict the use of our beach from Majuba Car Park to the South Care. When have you ever seen this in any Council press release? “You never have”, but there it is in the Planning Application. However, after becoming aware of the effects the development will have on the birds and other wildlife, and on proposed coastal protection schemes, English nature, The Environment Agency and the R.S.PB. have ALL OBJECTED to the Planning Application. Strange how the Council haven’t mentioned this!
5. Also in the Planning Application is a letter from the Project Manager, Mr Ian Hopley to the Regional Director of Persimmon Homes, asking him for ways round their statutory duty, in order for this Council to get Persimmons Planning Application through quicker!!! When have any of you, (as members of the public) after submitting a Planning Application, had a letter from the Council asking you for ways to help them get your Application through quicker.
Demand that Vera Baird QC MP calls for a ‘Public Inquiry’, its the only way to get the real truth into the public domain once and for all. To every last person who values ‘Democracy’, ‘Truth’ and ‘Fairness’, join our March on Saturday 7” October 2006, and let our call for a Public Inquiry’ be heard.
Don’t let the Council’s lies and lack of respect for the people of this Borough win. GIVE DEMOCRACY BACK TO THE PEOPLE.
God Bless and ‘Thank you’ for your support. Chris McGlade
