Goddard Avenue and the Council's Local Plan

John Fareham and John Abbott urged residents of Goddard Avenue to take part in the consultation process on the Council’s revised local plan. From a procedural standpoint, the Council has by law to revise the plan it uses as a yardstick for all planning applications from time to time and it also has to consult with residents and others on the revised version. What this has to do with Goddard Avenue is a great deal more simple and possibly more concerning. If you look at the maps and other documents which can be downloaded from the Council website, you will see that the land behind Goddard Avenue, currently allocated as greenspace, is reclassified as housing land. Leaving aside how much “land-banking” goes on – buying land, perhaps getting planning permission to build something and then sitting tight while you wait for doing something to become more lucrative – we feel that this change could have significant consequences for the character of the area.