Quote ="Fordy"Sent mine to my 3 councillors as below:
Councillor XXXXX,
I have lived in the Wakefield area for the majority of my life and am concerned by the article I read yesterday in a national newspaper which appears to bring into question the actions of my local council.
Several years ago I was one of 15,000 residents of Wakefield that signed a petition in favour of the development of a community stadium at Newmarket Lane, for the benefit of the Wakefield public. Following a lengthy Public Enquiry a local developer (Yorkcourt Properties) were granted planning permission and 220 acres of land was taken out of Green Belt in return for community sports facilities as part of a s106 agreement.
I understand that the responsibility for enforcement of any s106 agreement lies with the local planning authority (WMDC in this case) and yet the leader of our council has repeatedly denied those responsibilities, and has failed to get the developer to fulfil any obligations they had. On top of that, the report from HM Inspector stated that “The scheme cannot be disaggregated, because to do so would mean it could not fund the community stadium elements.” and yet that is exactly what WMDC allowed to happen when Yorkcourt submitted a separate planning application for the Newcold facility that has been built on the Newmarket site, a development that would have contributed a significant portion of the required trigger point for Yorkcourt to build those community facilities.
At a time when the council is cutting back on funding and closing sports/leisure facilities across the city, and with the rising obesity rates in this country, I am shocked and that there appears to be no political will to enforce the build of facilities that would provide potentially huge health benefits to the citizens of Wakefield with little or no cost to the council.
I have always been proud of my City and my heritage but as the father of two young boys aged 6 and 9 who love sport, all I currently see is a steady decline in the facilities that are on offer to children and I fear for them and for future generations.
I believe that WMDC is being negligent in it’s duty to the citizens of Wakefield and would respectfully request that as my local councillor you do whatever you can to raise this matter at the next council meeting and seek some answers for the Wakefield public.
Regards,
'"
Have finally received a reply from Councillor Darren Byford which basically just referred me to the published WMDC statement.
I have just sent the following reply:
=#FF0000Councillor Byford,
Whilst I appreciate you sending me a link to the WMDC statement I feel that it is still missing several of the points raised. I would appreciate an answer to the following questions:
1) Are WMDC the local planning authority in respect of the development at Newmarket Lane, Stanley?
2) Is the local planning authority responsible for enforcing planning conditions set out in any s106 agreement?
3) Why did the local planning authority accept a Unilateral Undertaking in respect of the s106 agreement, when the SoS clearly stated in the public enquiry that he would prefer a Multi-Party agreement? My understanding is that as the planning authority it was totally within WMDC's control to insist upon a multi-party agreement.
4) I understand that due to the height of the Newcold development that it did not fall within the conditions of the original planning application for Newmarket, however given that the SoS clearly stated that the development could not be disaggregated because to do so would mean that it could not fund the community stadium elements. Why therefore did the local planning authority not (as is their right) insist that this separate application was included as part of the s106 UU or insist that a new Multi-Party agreement was drawn up in line with their preferred option?
5) Given the importance and potential value of a Community Stadium to the public of Wakefield, why have meetings between WMDC and the Community Trust and the developer not been minuted, or if they have why are WMDC unwilling to disclose the minutes of those meetings, even when requested to do so under the Freedom of Information Act?
I understand there is a Council meeting this Wednesday and I would like you to raise the above questions as I do not feel that the statement that you referred me to answers any of these really important points
Kind regards
