IN the borough of Pendle, renowned for its witches and Quaker visionaries, the current planning policy, previously cloaked in secrecy, is being exposed by residents and community groups and new vision focused on the area's problems.
Like many areas up and down the country, large tracts of land are being earmarked for future possible housing development, driven by decisions taken by central government in the Eighties and fed down to local government though the county council structure plan, but now recognised as inappropriate to the contemporary situation.
We are told that land must be available for up to 1,000 new homes in Pendle alone to house the population by 2006.
A cursory glance around the borough, however, reveals that there is no shortage of housing, and indeed there are about 2,000 empty houses, many of which could be brought back to a useful and serviceable state at a fraction of the true cost of the grandiose new housing schemes.
This alternative policy would help prevent the loss of our unique and striking mix of industrial townscape heritage and immediately accessible fields and hills that encircle it.
We aim to stop the urban decay in our town centre, prevent the unnecessary suburbanisation of the countryside and, instead, are working with the councils to identify and audit empty houses and survey all possible available brownfield sites so as to 'stop the rot' in the town and country. We are co-ordinating our action with the National Week of Action on Empty Homes, highlighting the wasted resource they represent, as we do a detailed count of abandoned properties in the borough.
We have held constructive and fruitful discussions with our local councillors and county councillors, who have begun to recognise that, with inaccurate population forecasts (currently over estimated by 2,000), wasted housing assets and precious countryside under threat, our visions may make economic as well as social and environmental sense.
We are pleased and excited that many of our ideas are, in fact, contained in the public consultation document amending that issued by the Government, but frustrated that the proposals contained in it are not admissible until 2006.
Pendle typifies the problems experienced across the country as it is a microcosm of the national situation and we would welcome your response to this information and hope to be able to contribute to the debate.
CAROLINE PALMER, Woolpack, off Lenches Road, Colne.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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