Welcome to the Failand website

Public Inquiry into application for 500 houses in Failand

The application has gone to appeal, based on the failure of North Somerset Council to decide the application in time. An external Planning Inspector held a Public Inquiry in March and will have made a recommendation on 11 June to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who will issue a decision on or before 16 August.

Former Chairman of the Conservative Party, Eric Pickles, was appointed as the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in May and will make the decision.

If as we hope and expect, the inspector recommends to Refuse the Appeal, this will just be a rubber stamp job. If the inspector recommends to Allow the Appeal, we will be depending on the Conservative manifesto pledge to abolish the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) and its building targets upon which the appeal is based. We may need to lobby Liam Fox and the Secretary of State on the issue.

Mercury Article - 11 March 2010 (opens in new window)

Evening Post Article - 9 March 2010 (opens in new window)

Mercury Article - 21 January 2010 (opens in new window)

North Somerset Case File (opens in new window and you may need to scroll down to see content)

Both Long Ashton and Wraxall & Failand Parish Councils voted unanimously to object to the application as did the North Somerset Central Area Committee.

Working Group website (opens in new window)

Coalition programme for government

Right-click Save Target/Link As... to download pdf

P11

• We will rapidly abolish Regional Spatial Strategies and return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils, including giving councils new powers to stop 'garden grabbing'.
• In the longer term, we will radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live, based on the principles set out in the Conservative Party publication Open Source Planning.
• We will maintain the Green Belt,

Open Source Planning includes (P7):

"we will reform the existing planning appeals system. Firstly, we will make the system symmetrical by allowing appeals against local planning decisions from local residents, as well as from developers. Furthermore, we will limit the grounds for appeal against a local planning permission to just two:

1. that correct procedure was not followed in assessing the application,
2. that the decision reached is in contravention of the local plan."

Ashton Vale application

The Failand application has been made at the same time as the huge application to build 9500 houses in Ashton Vale, presumably with the intention of riding on the back of it. Planning officers will be busy dealing with this huge application.

South West Bristol Urban Extension Planning Application (opens in new window)

Our position should be that if development has to take place it should be in Ashton Vale contiguous with Bristol, not in Failand, but it would be far better to redevelop existing urban areas of Bristol to a high architectural and environmentally friendly standard than allow unsustainable urban sprawl and destruction of Green Belt countryside.

ADSL2+ and FTTC

When will we get faster broadband speeds from ADSL2+ and Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) in Failand? See the Broadband section for information.

www.failand.org.uk