Counting cost of doomed process (From York Press)

Counting cost of doomed process

11:10am Monday 11th June 2012 in Letters By Readers' letters

IT WAS to be expected City of York Council would seek to play down the cost of its abortive Local Development Framework (LDF), but the “estimates” it released under the Freedom of Information Request overstretch credulity (The Press, June 7).

Having followed the LDF process for many years, I believe the true figure to be far higher than that claimed. I would say that in reality the council has no idea how much it all costs and is just guessing as low a figure as it dares publish.

These council costs do not include the wasted expense incurred by others who contributed to the exercise: all those groups and individuals, such as myself, who attended seminars and responded to consultations.

We committed time and resources to a process which was doomed from the moment James Alexander decided the offer of a community stadium was too good to resist.

It is not true that much of the work on the LDF can be resurrected and put into a new plan. The approval of the Monks Cross applications goes to the heart of planning issues and fundamentally changes everything.

All the consultations previously carried out must be gone through again to take account of the new situation.

Matthew Laverack, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York.

• Councillor Dave Merrett’s claim that the withdrawal of the LDF core strategy will allow a new document to be prepared which reflects new planning legislation is surely nonsense.

The new national planning policy framework emphasises the high priority that should be given to city centres and the low priority that should be given to out-of-town locations such as Monks Cross.

The council has just granted planning permission on a scheme which is completely against the spirit and the letter of new planning legislation.

John Jones, Sand Hutton Manor, York.