4000 Newsletters distributed throughout Abergele

We have just completed the distribution of our first newsletter to all households in Abergele.

A big thankyou to all the people who helped deliver them to the 4000+ homes, and to all those who offered their help. In the end we had more volunteers than we needed.

The level of support we have received so far is very encouraging - but we all need to continue the fight and ensure the voice of Abergele is heard.

You can contact us on the following email address:-

email:- abergeleldp@yahoo.co.uk

Abergele LDP Action Group Newsletter

We have written first newsletter outlining the concerns we have about the Conwy LDP and the affect it will have on Abergele. The newsletter also outlines what has been done to date along with several important dates for your diary. You can view the newsletter by clicking on pages below (the pages will open in new window).

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Healthy News for Abergele

Spire Abergele Consulting Suites located in Abergele's North Wales Business Park is set to open in early June. The Private Healthcare venture will provide six ultra modern and spacious suites all with easy access at ground level. This facility will fill a major gap in private healthcare since the closure of the North Wales Medical Centre in Llandudno. The venture will see some 35 experienced North Wales consultants use the facility.

Further details can be found at the following link:- http://www.coastandcountrymagazine.co.uk/

We understand that the business park is also being considered to house a much larger private healthcare venture providing up to 300 new jobs. Again great news for Abergele.

So why mention it in this Blog?

Well...
Although bringing well needed jobs and private healthcare facilities to Abergele and North Wales the additional traffic generated by employees and patients attending the Spire Abergele consulting suite will have to pass through the town centre. (although it has been suggested to us that the traffic will be encouraged to travel along A55 to Llandulas and then drive back to Business Park!!!! Brilliant plan - mmm)

The suggested bypass road between Threeways roundabout and Llanfair Rd will also not have any impact on this additional traffic..

The solution to this problem is surely to build another slip road off/on A55 on west side of Abergele. This would also alleviate some of the traffic congestion experienced within Abergele.

If that wasn't enough for those bypass enthusiasts why not build one between Threeways roundabout and Pensarn - that would also relieve a lot of traffic which currently either goes through the centre of town or takes the rat-run running past Emrys Ap Iwan.

And whilst I'm on a planning roll, why not also implement proper filter lanes at the traffic lights in the centre of Abergele at junction of Market St and Water St (road could be widened taking some of land in front of the Gwindy if required). Lower cost than a bypass, probably relieve some of the traffic pressures - which actually are only a problem during school run and early evening.

Comments on the Conwy LDP Proposals: by a Concerned Abergele Resident

We have received a huge amount of support in way of emails, telephone calls and personal messages from the residents of Abergele. We thought it would be good to publish some of the messages received. We plan to do this on an ongoing basis as the campaign develops. Here is the first:-

Conwy County is a beautiful area, and residents enjoy quality of life and environment, the beautiful views it affords, and feelings of security.

So what has Abergele done to be treated as shabbily as the Council are doing with the LDP?

There has been no effective publicity about meetings where we can have our say – newspapers and the library are the only way this has been publicised according to the documents I have read on the County Council website. As a result, we are presented with a fait accompli.

It seems we are stuck with an LDP which promises to take away our children’s football fields, destroys the walks and scenery that the outskirts of Abergele and the hills around us are known for, gives freedom to build housing estates even when a proven case doesn't exist in addition to a bypass which we don’t need. All of this creates security worries which I am sure will make people leave their homes over. By giving freedom of the town and surrounding district to travellers, which we don’t have to seek evidence of undesirability for – there are enough recent and current news reports to give evidence of the disturbance on peoples’ lives that this will cause.

I also believe that even some Town and County Councillors were not even kept up to date with the plan. This isn’t democracy. We must have a well advertised Public Meeting to let the people of Abergele have their say about this destruction of our quality of life and environment.

A Concerned Abergele Resident

Journal - Travellers' Camp Plan an 'Outrage'

Click on picture to read story on page 3 of Journal

In our efforts to stop the proposed developments within Abergele we have been trawling through the Conwy Council minutes and agendas published on their website - great thing democracy - you get to access a lot of data relating to how the Council operate!

One of the questions that everyone has been asking us is how we have all not not heard about the proposed developments until this late stage in the proceedings - and we are at a late stage - the Deposit LDP is the final stage at which the community can affect what goes into the Local Development Plan. The only way we can force changes to the plan at this stage is by completing a complex technical form (Representation Form) and arguing why we object using specific arguments against 10 tests for soundness!!! We are currently interviewing several Planning Consultants with a view to hiring one to provide advice in completing the Representation Form.

Anyway back to that burning question - why did we not know about this?

Answer - we should have - read the interesting extract taken from CCBC minutes below:-

"The draft Conwy LDP 'Preferred strategy' was subject to 6 weeks statutory consultation in October 2006. Representations made by the Welsh Assembly Government on the Preferred strategy in October 2006 informed the Council that the strategy required further work and consultation on a Revised Preferred Strategy should take place prior to preparing a Deposit plan. Following a meeting held between CCBC planning policy and the WAG on 29th June 2008, a request has been made by the WAG for the Conwy LDP to go straight to deposit and disregard their previous advice on the preferred strategy in order to avoid possible substantial penalties set out in the European Waste Directive."

Can someone please explain to me what the European Waste Directive has to do with this, and more importantly when was it acceptable to short circuit or avoid the democratic process altogether just to avoid a penatly? Several words spring to mind - but I don't think I can publish them within this Blog.