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April 20, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Hi – I’m sure that this website is your intent – but will you be providing some more information on the main issues somewhere on here? ie. I know that my road (Collingwood Drive) hasn’t been handed over to the council, and I assume that this means that it won’t be looked after, but I don’t really know why the builder wouldn’t hand it over to the council/why the sewers wouldn’t be adopted/whose fault anything is or who I should be complaining to (ie. council/developer etc)! I am more than happy to support/get involved with any actions but I feel a little hazy as to the background behind the issues so any clarification would be gratefully received! Thank you for setting this up!
April 21, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Hi – We’ve just posted a listed of some of the concerns up (see the issues section), and there are many. We’ll be adding to them as we uncover them.
November 12, 2011 at 7:08 pm
Dear All,
As a resident I would like to thank The Longstanton Parish Council for instigating this meeting with South Cambs and the County Council’s Highway Development officer.
It feels very much like we have been left alone to deal with this issue with little support from District level, so I am very comforted that you took these steps on a Parish level. I also thank Alex Riley (District Councillor) who was invited to attend this meeting and has given us a written update. I hope that having the interest of our District Councillor will help and that maybe he will initiate a meeting of his own to follow up, bolstering support for our cause.
I look forward to hear of any further developments.
Yours Sincerely,
Amy
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From: alex@alexrileywines.co.uk
To: amylouisemoran@hotmail.co.uk; andrew.kessell@ntlworld.com; brianmeacher@btinternet.com; brianrobins@clara.net; djharradine@goldenlodge.freeserve.co.uk; estannard@btinternet.com; fyclose@gmail.com; lindseymeacher@hotmail.com; lpcclerk@btconnect.com
Subject: FW: Outcome of a meeting today about Home Farm
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:17:24 +0000
I have just sent this out to my Home Farm email recipients.
Alex
From: Alex Riley [mailto:alex@alexrileywines.co.uk]
Sent: 10 November 2011 19:16
To: ”
Subject: Outcome of a meeting today about Home Farm
This morning I attended a meeting with Lindsey Meacher, Den Harradine and Brian Robins of our Parish Council, together with our parish clerk, various officers from South Cambs and the County Council’s Highway Development Control Officer. What follows is my verbatim notes from that meeting.
I have submitted the first section on roads for inclusion in my next Longstanton Life article. In view of the very high level of interest among Home Farm residents I think it only right that you should see it immediately. The other sections will not be in the LL article, for reasons of space.
Home Farm Roads There are sections of road and pavement within Home Farm which remain unmade-up five years after the houses around them were occupied.
The lead developer for Phase 2 was a company called Coftons. They undertook to put in all the infrastructure and subcontracted the housebuilding to others (principally to Wimpeys). They have subsequently gone into administration. There is a condition on the developers that all roads must be made up to “base course level” and all footpaths must be completed before the homes they serve are occupied. Apparently Stevensons Road is made up to this level, though not all its footpaths are. The road still needs to be brought up to a finished standard. Enforcement against Coftons is not an option since they are no longer trading.
We were informed that there is no legal recourse. You cannot insist that a developer has his roads adopted and you cannot insist that he enters a Section 38 agreement to ensure adoption of the roads. This is a nationwide problem that would require legislation to fix. The problem only rarely occurs because non-bankrupt builders want the area to look attractive to help sell their houses.
The normal solution to this problem is for the original purchaser’s solicitor to demand a retention from the developer until the roads and footpaths are made up. This is all very well, but in the overheated housing market of a few years ago, developers would simply choose not to sell to buyers whose solicitors were demanding a retention.
There are rays of light in the gloom. Barratt Homes have verbally agreed to take on the responsibility of sorting the road and footpaths out, but without a timescale specified. The County Council has, as a quid pro quo, agreed to waive the inspection charges it would normally levy. If Barratts had not agreed to do this work the only other option would have been for local residents to fund the work themselves.
The County Council is trying to ensure that similar problems do not arise in Phase 3 (Persimmon and Keir) by charging much less in inspection fees if roads are made up early.
I am sure that you all share my sense of disbelief and anger that this situation could ever have arisen. Let us hope that it will not be long before it is remedied.
Community Uses Land (the land adjacent and to the North of the Village Green) Residents have rightly complained that for some months a) 2 fencing panels have been taken down and left in a mess and b) an ugly mess of metal fencing has been left in the middle of the site. As you probably know a company called CPP (Stortford) got planning consent on this plot a while ago, having (I believe) purchased it from Persimmons. There is a belief that they might have ceased trading. Officers are going to check up on this and report back to the next meeting.
Village Green Officers are to chase Persimmon to sort out various issue such as a) handing over of the Village Green to the PC with a suitable commuted sum, b) footpath onto Over Road, c) hedge (which Persimmon claims belongs to County Highways but which all the plans show belongs to them as the landowner) and d) play area. I know that you as residents will find it hard to believe but trying to make any progress on any subject with Persimmon is a uniquely frustrating experience.
Central Open Space (the large wilderness area north of Phase 2 and south of Phase 3) Officers are to identify definitively whether this should have been tidied up and brought into full use as part of Phase 2 (now complete) or as part of Phase 3 (still underway). Apparently no land transfer has been noted by the Land Registry, so presumably it still belongs to the original landowner.
Extension to Recreation Ground The handover of this land seems to have been tied in to planning consent for 36 houses over and above the original 500 for which permission has been granted by SCDC (known as Phase 3C) Officers are to resolve the s106 issues in order that the Rec. extension can become available to the village as soon as possible.
Maintenance of Phase 3B incidental open space This is the phase currently being built by Keir. Discussions took place with the PC and myself several months ago but Keir have not come up with the proposals for a commuted sum that they said they would. Officers are to pursue this.
LAPs (Local Ares of Play) There are various of these dotted about the estate and in some cases ownership has been wrongly transferred to the neighbouring residence. Officers are to iron out the various issues so we can find a way forward.
Charles Church footpath This is the area in front of Phase 3C, facing on to the High Street. Officers to ensure Persimmon comply.
Conclusion I am very aware how long some of these issues have taken to approach resolution – and that some of them are still some way away from achieving that. I do hope that this shows you that your elected representatives are working on your behalf. We have come up with a challenging Action list and the idea is that we should meet up again once there has been significant progress. The pencilled-in date is mid-January.
By all means pass this communication on to neighbours or put it on your website. If the neighbours would like to start receiving my information emails direct, ask them to send me an email. If they mention that they live on Home Farm I will ensure that they receive future emails like this.
Kind regards
Alex Riley
01954 208000