Cllr Mike O’Brien, a Conservative, has written a letter in today’s Medway Messenger, saying that the proposed crossing near Guardian Court and Pump Lane would be “vitally necessary for both the residents … and many hundreds of pupils attending Rainham Mark”.

Guardian Court residents have previously signed a petition to Medway Council calling for a crossing, with support from their local councillors.

In response to this, the road safety manager wrote to residents asking for their views and Cllr O’Brien is now “urg[ing] residents to respond and support the scheme”.

The family-run Greenfield’s boot fair was forced off of the site to allow the development of a proposed Tennis Academy last year, and so moved to the Sans Pareil field near Wainscott, Rochester.

However, the plans have yet to be finalised, and the earliest likely start date for development is the end of 2010.

As a result, the Greenfield family have been given permission to use the field for a fourteen-week run, beginning on Easter Sunday (4 April), after which they would have needed planning permission to continue.

Once the fourteen weeks is up, the family will return to the new site in Strood.

Pitches can be booked by calling Mark Greenfield on 07811 022987.

A controversial planning application for the former Shell garage site on the A2 has been refused by Medway Council’s Planning Committee.

Boundwell Ltd had applied to build a shop, hot food shop and two apartments on the site, but the Planning Committee ruled that the proposals would be detrimental to the area.

Councillors from Twydall and Rainham Central had spoken against the application before the committee decision refusing the application on the grounds that:

1. The proposed take away would be likely to encourage indiscriminate parking on the main A2 (a busy distributor road) in front of the site and in the general vicinity and this would prejudice conditions of highway safety on the A2 London Road. The proposal is therefore contrary to the provisions of Policy T1 of the Medway Local Plan 2003;
2. The proposed use would be prejudicial to the amenities of the locality by virtue of additional noise and disturbance, anti social behaviour, smells and inconvenience to local residents. This would be contrary to Policies R18, T1, BNE2 and BNE3 of the Medway Local Plan 2003; and
3. The proposal would be likely to generate an increased number of turning movements into and from the site onto the A2 London Road, where there has been an increase in vehicle numbers on the A2 since the former petrol Station closed, and this would add to the number of accidents in the area contrary to policies T1 and T2 of the Medway Local Plan 2003.

The application had been met by mixed responses, with 79 favourable comments and 56 comments against. 206 responses were?received?in total.

The Rainham Central Conservative councillors said that “we do realise that something has to be done with the site and also called for it be redesignated as housing” whilst Paul Clark MP thanked everyone who opposed the campaign. ]]> http://www.viewfrommedway.co.uk/2010/02/01/proposed-a2-development-refused-planning-permission.html/feed 0 http://www.viewfrommedway.co.uk/2010/02/01/alan-w-collins-launches-new-website-for-twydall-residents.html http://www.viewfrommedway.co.uk/2010/02/01/alan-w-collins-launches-new-website-for-twydall-residents.html#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:04:05 +0000 Alan W Collins http://www.alanwcollins.co.uk/?p=2758 Medway blogger Alan Collins has launched a new independent website aimed at residents of the Twydall ward of the Medway unitary authority.

As well as providing all the latest Twydall news from Alan W Collins, the Twydall Ward website provides useful information for Twydall residents, including information on housing and elected representatives for Twydll and the Gillingham and Rainham parliamentary constituency.

In line with one of the website’s aims of “promoting and advertising local businesses and services across Twydall ward for local residents”, a directory of the shops situated in the shopping area Twydall Green is also available on the website, with details being continually added and updated.

Due to the early stage in the website’s life – and the amount of potential the website has for growth – it is being launched in “beta” release, a state which it is set to stay in for a couple of months.

Alan Collins said, “This exciting project has been in the pipeline since October and I am thrilled to finally be able to launch the beta version.

“It is still quite primitive at the moment, and there are some pages which are not quite finished, but the basic design and the news content is now in place, with the ability and potential to add much more over the coming weeks and months.

“I welcome the input and suggestions from Twydall residents on how to improve the design or the content.”

The website can be found at www.TwydallWard.co.uk.

The Medway Messenger is reporting that the plans have been scrapped, although the church community could still submit a fresh, altered application.

Officers, who had the authority to decide on the decision themselves, had recommended that councillors refuse the application at tonight’s meeting, although with several representations in support of the proposal, had referred it nonetheless and a refusal by councillors was less than certain.

AlanWCollins will be publishing a guide to the applications thus far in due course.

It will be the second time the 1960s church building will come under discussion in as many consecutive meetings of the Planning Committee (formerly the Development Control Committee).

It will also be the second time a refusal has been recommended, with officers, who had the authority to make a decision themselves, yet were faced with a large number of representations contradicting their recommendation, believing that to destroy the church would be to harm the character and appearance of the area.

Although the church community does not wish to lose the building either, senior members of the church staff have told AlanWCollins that it has now become simply unsustainable, and that something needs to be done to protect the church community.

Assuming the meeting is not “snowed off”, AlanWCollins will be there to report on the decision, and, regardless of the outcome, will be producing a full guide to the application in due course.

The Holy Trinity Church at the south of Twydall Green was considered for demolition under planning application MC/09/1151, but the committee of councillors decided that the building, along with the church hall, should stay.

It means that the church community must continue to struggle indefinitely to try to meet the costs of maintaining the church building.

The main issue raised by councillors in approving the refusal?recommendation?of the council’s planning officers, including the planning manager Dave Harris who confessed to loving the building, was the small number of parking spaces included in the proposals for homes, with 11 parking spaces for 23 homes.

However, councillors hinted that other reasons included in the report by the council planning officers could be disregarded if parking provisions were altered in a future planning application – including, primarily, the loss of the iconic church building.

Independent Councillor Ian Burt admitted that he was reluctant to refuse the application, whilst Liberal Democrat Councillor Maureen Ruparel, a Twydall resident, sympathised with the church’s plight, but expressed concerns over the parking proposals.

The more recent planning application, in relation to the listed building status, has yet to be decided, but looks unlikely to succeed based upon last Wednesday’s decision.

However, this is only a setback for the church community, and there are several more options open to them, including appealing the decision or resubmitting an altered application.

Staff at the store, who will leave work on Wednesday wearing their Somerfield uniforms for the last time, will arrive on Thursday in their new Co-operative uniforms.

Sources have said that the forecourt will close at around 8pm on Wednesday night and re-open early Thursday morning, although workers may need Thursday night as well to link the tills up to the Co-operative system.

The meeting, organised by and on behalf of residents, to discuss proposals by Boundwell Ltd to erect a shop, a hot food shop and two apartments will take place at the Rainham Mark Social Club on London Road (map below).

The meeting, on Thursday (26th November) starts at 19:30. All are welcome to come and have their say.

Boundwell Ltd have applied for permission to develop the land at the former petrol station located at 16-22 London Road, Rainham.

The proposal being made by Boundwell Ltd is to erect a shop, a hot food shop and two apartments.

All local residents are invited to attend the public consultation this Friday (20th November), which starts at 19:00 in the school hall at Rainham Mark Grammar School in Pump Lane (map below), to inspect the plans and discuss the proposals.