From: Angela.Watts@kent.gov.uk
Subject: FW: Letter
To: sharon.thompson@kent.gov.uk
Cc: fred.turton
Date: Monday, 4 April, 2011, 8:48
Dear Sharon
Please see attached letter from Mr Turton, who requests that I forward this to you on his behalf.
Angela Watts
Senior Planning Officer
Planning Applications Group
First Floor
Invicta House
County Hall
Maidstone
Kent ME14 1XX
Tel: 01622 221059
Fax: 01622 221072
Our online planning applications service is now live!
http://www.kent.gov.uk/environment_and_planning/planning_in_kent/planning_applications/view_planning_applications.aspx
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From: FRED TURTON
Sent: 03 April 2011 21:35
To: Watts, Angela - EE PE
Subject: Re: Letter
Angela, please forward this (see below) to Mrs Sharon Thompson as I have mentioned her name in a letter to Eric Pickles MP.
Dear Mrs Thompson, I have attached my letter (see below) to Eric Pickles over the decision to allow Countrystyle Development to build an Anaerobic Digester on the edge of Sellindge. As you will see I consider local democracy to be a joke. I am a house tax payer and from my bill I pay 69.56% of my total of £1840.85 to KCC. When I needed their help theyt kicked us in the teeth. The Application Meeting on the 15th March was a fiasco, with some of the councillors falling asleep during the process. How many voted for the Digester, about 15 old men, whereas well over 2000 people were against it as well as the Parish Councils, Shepway Council, our County Councillor and our elected MP. All you seem to worry about was how much an appeal would cost KCC, never mind the injustice and undemocratic way we were treated. Democarcy in Local Government is just one big joke.
I wonder what your reaction would have been if Countrystyle had applied to build the Digester in the locality where you live. This is the problem, those who apply and those who decide are unaffected by the outcome.
Fred Turton
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Letter Attached - see below:
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F.J. & Mrs M.J.Turton,
4 Swan Green,
Sellindge,
Ashford,
Kent,
TN25 6EX
Email. Brain37@live.co.uk
Phone. 01303 812146
3rd April 2011
Dear Mr Pickles,
I received a copy of your letter from the Conservative Central Office, on Transparency in local government. Quite honestly its not transparency we require but democracy. It’s all very well preaching this to other countries but from the recent experience that the people of my village went through with Kent County Council (KCC), democracy doesn’t exist at local level.
The village I live in is situated on the A20 between Ashford and Folkestone. On the south side there is an industrial park that was once Lympe airport. An application was made to KCC by Countrystyle Developments to build and Anaerobic Digester on the edge of the park. The location of this is in the path of the prevailing south westerly wind. Many of the local residents went to County Hall in Maidstone when the application was being considered. The meeting was a fiasco with our views being totally ignored and the motion granting permission for Countrystyle to build their Plant.
The residents of Sellindge are totally against the building of the Digester so close to our village. We signed a petition of nearly 2000 signatures, 96% of the village. The reason for the objection was the obnoxious gases that the Digester creates, which most likely will be blown across the village. Added to this, is the amount of traffic that will deliver the waste product for processing. Countrystyle have stated that about 100 lorries a day will enter the site, 10 an hour or one every six minutes. We were told that it would take at least four minutes for a lorry to drive in, unload and then leave. What is most likely to happen is that there will be a long queue of lorries along the A20 with their engines going all of the time. Opposite the entrance to the Digester is a café that has been there for over sixty years. This is a thriving business and is expected to lose trade once the Digester is installed. Further along is the first house in the village, directly opposite the Digester.
As well as the residents of Sellindge being against the Digester, opposition has also come from our local Parish Council and those of three others, name Lympe, Sandling and Westernhanger. It was also opposed by Shepway District Council, our County Councillor Susan Carey and our local MP Damien Collins. At the application meeting the views of all these were totally ignored. Councillor Carey presented the signatures to the chairman who then totally disregarded them. It was mentioned that a letter had been received from Mr Collins but was then dismissed as being incorrect. It wasn’t read out.
The meeting from our point of view was a charade. There must have been about 15 councillors present with two of them falling asleep during the different speeches. They were prompted from time to time by the Chief Planner Mrs Sharon Thompson, who told the committee that if they reject the application it would cost KCC a lot of money when Countrystyle appeal. She finished the meeting from a pre-typed summary. We have since been told that we cannot appeal against the committee’s decision. And we are supposed to live in a democracy where the views of thousands of people are ignored so that a few people can make money and KCC save on legal costs.
The people of Sellindge are all in favour of recycling. This is evident from the way that their refuse is sorted before collection. Although we very, very rarely have Shepway Council clean our roads you never see any litter as people will pick it up even if it’s not theirs. We were told at the meeting that there are 62 sites that Countrystyle could have chosen from but instead they are to build on the edge of our village in possibly the worst location. On the BBC Breakfast TV a reporter went to a re-cycling plant and showed just one lorry load of waste. She concluded her report with the sentence “What a terrible pong” and we are expected to put up with 100 loads a day.
As I said, we are supposed to be living in a democracy so how democratic is it when a decision is given to just a few people against the wishes of thousands? What always infuriates me in situations such as this is that those proposing and those deciding, are unaffected by the outcome. I have written to the Prime Minister whose office said that my letter has been passed to the relevant department. I understand that you are just man so what would be your reaction if you were treated like us in Sellindge?
Yours sincerely,
(F.J.Turton)
