WhiteFarmInquiry

YEARS OF OPPOSITION TO HOUSING DEVELOPMENT ON BARRY’S GREEN LUNG

1/ This is yet another ’Backfill’ development, requiring access through existing developments and placing further pressure on Barry’s inadequate infrastructure – nose to tail to Cardiff.

2/ There is a need for a New Town in the Vale of Glamorgan, rather than trying to squeeze unsustainable development into overburdened urban areas. If elected to the Vale council for the third time, I will push hard for a new Town in the Vale, to accommodate housing requirements – a Town built to the highest environmental standards, with a Sustainable Community

3/ Here we have developers, who had already achieved planning permission, trying to squeeze more profit out of an ancient farmland area, in the middle of Barry – nothing new there.

4/ When a County councillor, in 2007, I was shocked when a Persimmon Director described the Waterfront Phase 1 as ‘Crap’, in open Committee, with members of the public present. It would appear that Persimmon are determined to dump more ‘Crap’ on our Town, a process I will vehemently oppose, as a committed environmentalist, along with the members of FoE's local Group.

5/ When Supervising Conservation Volunteers in 2007, I attempted to reach Holton Road School, to develop gardens for the children attending there. We could not get to the School, because of five feet of water blocking the roads. This was a local monsoon rainfall, which we can expect a lot more of, given global storming. Other areas of Barry were flooded, including parts of the Coldbrook valley and the flooding will be much worse, if this 'green lung' is covered in concrete and tarmac.

5/ White Farm is a biodiverse area and Barry&Vale FoE have long called for an audit of this biodiversity, but none had been forthcoming. Linked to White Farm, is Merthyr Dyfan Church and the medieval Lane/hedges of the ancient road which emerges on Cemetery Lane, where planning permission was recently refused. Above this, we have the Cemetery and adjoining fields, ready for future burials. Added to this are the Buttrills Playing Fields. All in all and joined-together, this constitutes one of the few open areas in the middle of Barry and should be retained as an important green space.

Statement to Inquiry, 25 April 2012, by Keith Stockdale on behalf of Barry/Vale FoE