Durham County Council emailed me the plans for the Spout Lane road changes today including the new roundabout at the end of Hilsdon Drive.
Grab a copy from here (If I'm not allowed to host this file please let me know and I'll take it down.)
Monday 10 March 2008
Saturday 8 March 2008
Discussion of the planning application
Here's what appears to be a rather brief discussion and approval of the planning application from 28th Feb 2005.
And finally after trawling around here's a link to a rather detailed pdf containing the application and discussion.
And finally after trawling around here's a link to a rather detailed pdf containing the application and discussion.
Road changes coming for Spout Lane
A quick look around the Durham County Council website through up this nugget of information regarding Spout Lane.
Spout Lane C189 Shildon New roundabout and road re-alignment expected to commence Spring 2008 Thickley
Interesting. I'm guessing this is why the hedgerow has been removed. I'll have a look around further and see if I can find any plans on the website. If not I'll fire off an email and see if I can get hold of them.
Again I'm still concerned about the lack of information being provided to the residents. Things definitely seem to be happening but nobody seems to want to make the information available.
Spout Lane C189 Shildon New roundabout and road re-alignment expected to commence Spring 2008 Thickley
Interesting. I'm guessing this is why the hedgerow has been removed. I'll have a look around further and see if I can find any plans on the website. If not I'll fire off an email and see if I can get hold of them.
Again I'm still concerned about the lack of information being provided to the residents. Things definitely seem to be happening but nobody seems to want to make the information available.
Missing plans and a distinct lack of information
I've been having a look around the Sedgefield Council Planning applications website and it makes for some very interesting reading.
You can access it here
If you do an applicant search for Theakston Estates you can see the original applications and the conditions for their approval
This is the Spout Lane application
This is the Dale road car park application. (Currently being constructed)
and this is the George Reynolds industrial estate application.
One thing to note about all three of these is the distinct lack of plans available online and for the main Spout Lane development I can find no trace of a subsequent application for the reserved items before the 3 year deadline expired. I've emailed the council to ask for information about these applications and the associated plans in the hope we can find out exactly what's going on for all three projects. As far as I can tell from reading the Spout Lane application (And I admit I don't really understand the rules governing this sort of thing) nobody should have removed any hedgerows without permission from the council so hopefully information on that should be forthcoming. I'll post their response when I receive it. Hopefully that should only be a few days. On previous occasions when I've emailed the council they've been very quick with a response.
You can access it here
If you do an applicant search for Theakston Estates you can see the original applications and the conditions for their approval
This is the Spout Lane application
This is the Dale road car park application. (Currently being constructed)
and this is the George Reynolds industrial estate application.
One thing to note about all three of these is the distinct lack of plans available online and for the main Spout Lane development I can find no trace of a subsequent application for the reserved items before the 3 year deadline expired. I've emailed the council to ask for information about these applications and the associated plans in the hope we can find out exactly what's going on for all three projects. As far as I can tell from reading the Spout Lane application (And I admit I don't really understand the rules governing this sort of thing) nobody should have removed any hedgerows without permission from the council so hopefully information on that should be forthcoming. I'll post their response when I receive it. Hopefully that should only be a few days. On previous occasions when I've emailed the council they've been very quick with a response.
Friday 7 March 2008
And so it begins
As I said in my first post it would seem that development may be about to start in earnest so I took my trusty camera out for a walk and snapped some pictures of the current state of play
The development is in two main parts. At the bottom of the hill they're building a few hundred houses (Directly across from my house) and at the top of the hill they're building what has been described as a parkland area. Basically a wooded park that will no doubt fall into disuse and neglect as the council realises how expensive it is to maintain. Time will tell no doubt.
First here's a shot of the field opposite my house
As you can see the hedgerow is totally gone. Just like that years and years of growth and wildlife destroyed. I don't even know why. Surely having a real live hedgerow at the end of your garden would be a selling point? It'll be very interesting to see what if anything it is eventually replaced with.
This next shot is the same place but a slightly different angle. This time facing down the hill towards the rather nice railway museum we have here.
Coming soon! Eventually anyway :)
The next photo is the area at the top of the hill where they plan to build the wooded park. At the moment all I know about this is that the developers are obliged to look after it for the first 12 months. After that I would presume that duty would fall to the council and the costs no doubt passed onto us via the council tax.
I'll see what I can do about getting some scans up of the development plans in a future post. I've seen the proposed layout but I'm not sure if I still have a copy.
The development is in two main parts. At the bottom of the hill they're building a few hundred houses (Directly across from my house) and at the top of the hill they're building what has been described as a parkland area. Basically a wooded park that will no doubt fall into disuse and neglect as the council realises how expensive it is to maintain. Time will tell no doubt.
First here's a shot of the field opposite my house
As you can see the hedgerow is totally gone. Just like that years and years of growth and wildlife destroyed. I don't even know why. Surely having a real live hedgerow at the end of your garden would be a selling point? It'll be very interesting to see what if anything it is eventually replaced with.
This next shot is the same place but a slightly different angle. This time facing down the hill towards the rather nice railway museum we have here.
Coming soon! Eventually anyway :)
The next photo is the area at the top of the hill where they plan to build the wooded park. At the moment all I know about this is that the developers are obliged to look after it for the first 12 months. After that I would presume that duty would fall to the council and the costs no doubt passed onto us via the council tax.
I'll see what I can do about getting some scans up of the development plans in a future post. I've seen the proposed layout but I'm not sure if I still have a copy.
In the beginning
Here's a photo I took a while ago from the bottom of the hill. My house is one of those on the left side of the road and the development is taking place in the fields on the right. It's not terribly clear in the blog version of the photo but you can see the hedgerow by the side of the field.
The road you might note is fairly narrow but also very busy with heavy traffic. We get a lot of cars and a lot of large lorries and trucks going up and down all day long. As you can see though it's still a very nice area. Especially when the weather is nice.
Welcome
Hello and welcome to my little blog. In this first post I'd like to describe what I plan to do with this small piece of the internet.
I live in a small town in the north-east of England called Shildon. I live on the very edge of the town and for the past thirty years the house has overlooked fields. It's not the best view in the world but it's attractive and we like it. The fields were bordered by a tall hedgerow filled with birds and other assorted wildlife.
Then a few years ago the world decided it was time to move on and a housing development company bought the fields with the plan to build houses there. Against a large number of objections (including my own) the local council approved planning permission and that was that.
Then nothing much happened. Occasionally men would be seen doing surveys of various kinds. Eventually two signs went up describing the project. One recently blew over in the wind and is still lying halfway across the field. A few days ago on the way home from work I saw that they'd removed the hedgerow completely. At this point I realised that things were probably about to happen and it was as good a time as ever to start this blog that I hope will be a pictorial time line of a housing project development and an interesting record of how things will change.
I'd just like to say at the beginning and for the record that I'm not opposed to housing developments like this generally. I fully appreciate the need for new housing. My objections for this development are many but sadly now in the past and not worth cluttering this blog with. The deed is done and we now have to live with the consequences (And there will be many). I just thought that maintaining a record of the development would be an interesting small project for me.
The next few posts will be a description of the area, a glimpse at how the area used to look and the small progress that has been made so far. The frequency of my posting will naturally increase as the development progress gets going.
I hope you'll all stay with me for the journey. Perhaps those eventually owners of the new houses might find the site and see what it was like "When all this was fields"
I live in a small town in the north-east of England called Shildon. I live on the very edge of the town and for the past thirty years the house has overlooked fields. It's not the best view in the world but it's attractive and we like it. The fields were bordered by a tall hedgerow filled with birds and other assorted wildlife.
Then a few years ago the world decided it was time to move on and a housing development company bought the fields with the plan to build houses there. Against a large number of objections (including my own) the local council approved planning permission and that was that.
Then nothing much happened. Occasionally men would be seen doing surveys of various kinds. Eventually two signs went up describing the project. One recently blew over in the wind and is still lying halfway across the field. A few days ago on the way home from work I saw that they'd removed the hedgerow completely. At this point I realised that things were probably about to happen and it was as good a time as ever to start this blog that I hope will be a pictorial time line of a housing project development and an interesting record of how things will change.
I'd just like to say at the beginning and for the record that I'm not opposed to housing developments like this generally. I fully appreciate the need for new housing. My objections for this development are many but sadly now in the past and not worth cluttering this blog with. The deed is done and we now have to live with the consequences (And there will be many). I just thought that maintaining a record of the development would be an interesting small project for me.
The next few posts will be a description of the area, a glimpse at how the area used to look and the small progress that has been made so far. The frequency of my posting will naturally increase as the development progress gets going.
I hope you'll all stay with me for the journey. Perhaps those eventually owners of the new houses might find the site and see what it was like "When all this was fields"
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