I promise to work tirelessly on behalf of our communities, to improve and protect them. I will be available, open and diligent. Those of you who know me from the Parish Council in Great Chesterford will be aware of how seriously I take my duties.
I will….
- listen to your issues, deal with your concerns and be present at your Parish Council meetings
- keep our communities informed and updated on grants and initiatives that could benefit them
- work to improve the Social Care for our vulnerable residents
- help communities address their local affordable housing needs
- fight to make sure that any negative impacts of housing developments are mitigated
- oppose large-scale development as extensions to existing villages
- liaise with local Police to ensure your concerns and issues are addressed
I am not a salesperson and self-promotion is not something I am comfortable doing so you are unlikely to find me knocking on your door, however, if you would like to discuss anything with me I am more than happy to arrange to come and see you at a time convenient to you. Please drop me an email at joanna@joannafranics.org or leave me a message on 01799 530903.
New Housing
The question on everyone’s lips at the moment is ‘where should the housing go?'. It’s not an easy question to answer. If the Planners looked at a map and determined where the most sustainable location is for a single settlement , i.e. ‘the ideal’ location based on existing infrastructure, employment, scalability etc. the land is likely to currently be fields with no ‘master’ plan, multiple landowners and have little chance of deliverability within the plan period. How long has it taken for Northstowe (north of Cambridge) to get to its current stage? The District Council will still need to maintain a 5 year housing supply which means the equivalent of a large village being built EVERY year. Those locations which already had ‘master’ plans will come forward again during the UDC call for sites, hopefully they will have addressed the negatives raised during the last SHLAA rather than just resubmitting them and giving Planners the same lack of choice they had before.
Having lived in Milton Keynes for a few years, I understand the planning benefits of a well-designed very large single settlement with room to grow over time but I really don’t think it is appropriate for this District and all the new affordable housing would be in one area of the District and not spread across it, although in theory Developers could provide 50% of their allocation on-site and give the equivalent of 50% in funding for off-site provision (funds could be pooled to provide affordable housing in additional locations across the District) if policies were put in place to support this.
With a dispersal strategy it is very difficult to meet the housing figures with ‘pockets’ of development and the size of the developments will not cover the cost of additional infrastructure. Larger estates added to settlements have a negative impact on the existing community and provide no sense of community identity for the people moving into them. You cannot just keep adding housing to existing settlements without destroying their uniqueness.
With the rural nature of the District, I would prefer clusters of new villages with shared services and schools an local areas of employment. We have to stop just building houses and start building new communities.
Affordable Housing
The waiting list for Council owned (rented at 60% market rental value) and Housing Association 'affordable' housing (rented at up to 80% market rental value) is of great concern to many. I know Cllr Julie Redfern (UDC Cabinet Member for Housing) continually looks for ways to generate income to increase housing stock. UDC has a policy whereby 40% of new houses on larger developments should be built as affordable housing. I can't remember the exact figure that I saw elsewhere but the claim was that UDC only achieves either 25 or 27%. This is untrue. The average achieved across the larger applications that were approved in 2014 was 35%. For many Councils the starting point is only 30% (and they are achieving in the low 20s) so UDC deserves some credit.
Existing Communities
I am keen to ensure that our local communities continue to thrive. It is important that affordable housing in our villages is available and suitable for younger people wanting to leave home but stay close to their families and older residents who do not want to move away from their friends and local support networks. This cannot always be achieved using exception sites and may require open market housing as part of a development.
There is currently a lot of talk about Neighbourhood Plans which are not appropriate for all communities although they may be more suitable if Parishes are willing to work together on joint plans to help meet the needs of their communities. I am the Steering Group Co-ordinator for The Chesterfords Neighbourhood Plan and I am gaining more experience in this area which I am more than willing to share with other local communities, to help and support Parishes wanting to undertake a Neighbourhood Plan or Neighbourhood Development Order.
Grant Funding
Grants such as the UDC Community Project scheme provide a much needed source of funding. Many Parish Councils, Village Hall Committees and village societies regularly apply to this annual fund. The Jubilee fund was a one-off grant fund which didn’t require match funding and proved really useful and successful with communities. I would like to see something similar happen again, perhaps every 5 years or for the match funding requirements on the Community Project scheme to be altered.