"South Northants Constituency bares the brunt of in new growth plans" - Scott Collins

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 27th Jun 2009

The current view across the site of the 'Towcester Vale' development in Towcester

The launch of the document that sets out the growth agenda for the West Northamptonshire area has met with a disappointment from Scott Collins, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for the new South Northamptonshire Constituency.

The Joint Core Strategy outlines where development in West Northamptonshire could take place, with South Northamptonshire taking the bulk of the expansion with some 30,000 new homes around the Wooton and Grange Park areas (now part of the new South Northamptonshire constituency) and further growth of 3,300 homes in Towcester and around 1,500 homes in Brackley.

Scott Said "The figures have been set by a Government which has already proved to be woefully out of touch with the needs of the public and has been entirely unsuccessful at reach most of the targets it has set itself. The levels of housing planned for these areas are huge and the predicted levels of new jobs in these developments seem to be entirely unrealistic, especially in the current economic climate. I would encourage every resident in the area to respond to the consultation, expressing their views. The public must be heard, top down targets set by Government take no account of local concerns and needs."

Commenting further "The problems faced by many developments such as Grange Park must be learnt from and prevented from happening again. We cannot, and must not, have a situation where developers create communities that are then left for long periods of time without key parts of the infrastructure being in place. When the key document was published in draft form by the government nearly 5 years ago in clearly stated that infrastructure should be 'front-loaded' ensuring that key infrastructure such as Schools and shops would be I place at the start of the first residents moving into the new homes. But when the final document was agreed this had been changed to 'phased' meaning the developer would provide infrastructure once 'trigger points' are reached leaving some communities without key infrastructure to support them for many years."

"Any plan must offer sufficient highways infrastructure must be in place well in advance. New schools, hospitals, other medical facilities, community centres, local stores and places of worship must be provided either up front or at the very earliest stages of occupation. The Government must ensure the investment for these essential items of infrastructure is provided in advance of any development"

"I am urging the Government to scrap these arbitrary targets for growth and return the ability to decide on the location of local developments to the people elected to represent their citizens and the people themselves. It is after all the residents that often know best where development is most needed to cater for local needs and address local concerns, all issues that play little or no part in the setting of the current targets. We as a party are not anti development, we must have more homes, jobs and more opportunities for people but it must not be at the expense at green fields or the good of current communities"

"As a party we in the Liberal Democrats belief in empowering local people and returning key decisions to the level of representation that are closest to the people, whether it is Parish and Town Council or the Districts. The key must always be that the local people are listened to and have some influence over the decision affecting their lives."