Pros & Cons
My very first thoughts on hearing about the plans to develop Rotherham over the next twenty years were actually quite positive. About time somebody got their finger out, I thought, and did something for the town. Like most industrial towns in Britain, Rotherham has suffered for a long time though it has not decayed as badly as many.
These are some of the good points I though of:-
- New housing will ensure that those inhabitants of Rotherham still living in substandard and shoddy accommodation will be re-housed to modern standards.
- New residential development will shorten waiting list for council housing and benefit local families.
- The development of new areas for business and industry will attract outside investment and bring jobs to the town and borough.
- The development of these sites will provide work for local people.
- There will be enhanced facilities for local people.
- New roads will relieve the current congestion on existing routes.
Then I realised that this was all bol**cks. The people who will benefits from all this, if indeed anybody will, are NOT THE PEOPLE OF ROTHERHAM. Incomers will get the jobs and the houses: profits will go south as they always have.
The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realise the whole thing is just not feasible! The vastness of the undertaking, where the money was coming from to pay for it all, how it would impinge on the lives of the ordinary Rotherhamite; YOU and ME. Then I got very annoyed with Rotherham Council about the lack of consultation with the communities most involved, and where there was consultation, the very short time limits imposed. Where local authorities try to slip anything by on the nod you can be sure something funny is going off.
My objections to the whole of the Core Strategy Preferred options are are:-
- PERSONAL - Ok so I'm a nimby and the projected development at Bassingthorpe Farm might well impinge on my present view of open fields.
- PERSONAL - Let me say as well that I am opposed to the development of any green belt anywhere unless there is absolutely no viable alternative. You try developing a bit of green belt for yourself and the planners are down on you like a ton of bricks.
- FINANCIAL - Where is the money, hundreds of millions of pounds by my reckoning, going to come from? Given the current financial state of Britain today and the fact that the country is up to its neck in debt already where is the wherewithal to fund the Rotherham project and many more like it going to come from?
- ECOLOGICAL - What about the water supply? I have read of no plans for new reservoirs so are we going to have to share the same water supply with another 100,000 people? I can see a time when all of us might only get water for part of the day.
- ECOLOGICAL - Then there's the drainage! The concreting over of vast areas for housing and business will make immense changes to the water table and the runoff of rain. Although it is not envisaged that these developments will take place in the floodplains of any of the local rivers there is no guarantee that your property will not flood if the rainwater has nowhere else to go.
- ECOLOGICAL - What about the wildlife? It may come as a surprise to some but the human race does not actually own the earth; we are merely stewards and pretty bad ones at that.
- INFRASTRUCTURE - Roads in many parts of Rotherham are already at saturation point. Unless there is major multi-million pound investment in building a new transport infrastructure to support the new housing and business you might as well forget it!
- INFRASTRUCTURE - These new estates will require a permanent public transport commitment or inhabitants without their own vehicles will be stranded. In many areas bus services have already been pared back to the bone because the operators cannot make sufficient profit.
- SERVICES - Then there are the services: schools, libraries, healthcare and suchlike. Once again in some areas of Rotherham these services are already under strain. Unless there is major investment in this area too the quality of life of every day Rotherham folk is likely to take a very sharp drop.
Let's Face It - The big picture just ain't gonna happen! But then the council, by rescinding the green belt status can pass whatever plans they like for the cherry-picking and piecemeal development of all these areas and we will all be the losers.