Local News

NOTICE TO TUNLEY RESIDENTS RE SITES FOR HOUSING

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Hello Tunley Residents

I’m after a bit of feedback to help the Parish Council.

To help inform a partial update of its Local Plan, BANES Council is asking communities across the region to offer up for consideration any sites they consider to be potentially suitable for development for housing, employment uses or renewable energy development.

This ‘call for sites’ has commenced, and if we wanted to respond for this parish we need to do by 15th June. Unfortunately, that’s before the next Parish Council meeting and during the dormant period of “The Batch” so that’s why I’m putting this on the parish website.

There are several points of view. There are those in any community who would respond with offers because they believe limited, locally-controlled development is a good idea because it sustains the social and economic life of a community and can help local families stay in the area. On the other hand, there will be those who do not believe that a rural area like ours should voluntarily submit to more development – either at all, or at least until other urban sites have been used up first.

There is no obligation or expectation that we will offer any sites. But it has, for example, been suggested that the “two halves” of Tunley could be joined by, and both benefit from, some limited, controlled, housing development along the north and/or south side of the B3115.

It would help if we knew the general feeling in Tunley about this and any other possibilities, so comment and reaction is welcome.

A couple of important comments – offering up any site for consideration does not commit us or any house or landowner to, or guarantee (in terms of planning permissions etc), anything. It is simply offering an idea to BANES planners for proper, fuller consideration later. The other thing I’d say is that, to date, BANES seems to have preferred to go with bigger schemes rather than take any opportunity for smaller, more dispersed and fragmented options at the scale of anything that might be done here. But you never know.

So I’d be grateful for your reactions and thoughts.

Cllr David Orme, Chairman, Dunkerton & Tunley PC