As you are probably aware, a proposal is being formed to develop 34 homes on the green belt site of the Bucks Meadow Riding school. For those who don’t know this location it is at the corner of Bucks Avenue and Sherwoods Road backing on to Elm Avenue, Talbot Avenue, Lowson Grove and Attenborough’s Fields.
We believe that the current site is too large for our community, and is out of character with the surrounding area. We believe that the scale of this development will significantly exacerbate the traffic hazard, congestion, pollution and parking issues in and around our area and will cause additional strain on our already stretched local resources; our schools and doctors surgeries and our busy trains.
Furthermore and perhaps of most concern, this development will be building on and significantly impacting the openness of our Green Belt land affecting our enjoyment of it as well as the wildlife within it.
OVEG and local residents have suggested a smaller development which we believe can be just as financially viable whilst not being hugely detrimental to our area and setting a concerning precedent for building on Green Belt land. The developers behind this proposal are seemingly uninterested in our suggestions in this regard.
We believe that they are going to press ahead with their huge development and are shortly going to submit their planning application.
We would like to fight this but we suspect this will be costly. We know from similar battles, local groups have spent thousands on defending their community’s interest but the good news is that they can win. We intend to win.
We’re asking for local people to come together to pledge a contribution that may be used to fund planning and traffic consultants, legal advice and if necessary court costs. To kick start this campaign OVEG have pledged £1000.
OVEG have a successful track history of coordinating this sort of activity but have never before fought against this scale of Green Belt development. We’re prepared for the fight but are asking for people to give what ever they can afford to assist.
You can make your donation online at www.gofundme.com/bucksmeadow
If you don’t have internet access or would rather make a donation by cash or cheque please contact Kim on 07775 844244 for futher information.
Thank you
Ben Atkins on behalf of the OVEG committee