I should say once again from the outset, that I'm not against the proposal for 11 units on this site. In fact I would welcome it. The issue I have is the proposed design's vehicular entrance is halfway up the access road to Merstham Football Club and Age Concern.
In between the last Planning meeting and this Planning meeting, Merstham FC has once again found itself trending on social media with one of the top 5 attendances in the South East, just below Sittingbourne FC with a population of 65,000.
Like many, if not all borough councillors, I believe in the principle of subsidiarity:
The idea that decisions are best made by the most immediate, or local level.
In this instance, the local people are saying yes to housing on this site, but please Raven, why don't you alter the design so that the development is accessed directly from Weldon Way to prevent extra stress on elderly visitors or friction between residents of the new development and visiting fans to Merstham FC.
One final thing, members are hopefully aware that the trustees of Age Concern have taken the unanimous decision at their meeting on 15th March not to sell or rent any part of their land to Raven required for the visibility splay in this application. One really really needs to consider the lengths that Age Concern have gone to.
Equally a former director of Merstham FC has taken the time and money to pay an architect to redesign the development to provide access from Weldon Way, while still maintaining the 11 units.
These two points cannot, and should not be disregarded.
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