Rossendale residents’ fury halts meeting over developments (From Lancashire Telegraph)

I dont think people want to say no to everything.Time moves on and so does development.It is the under handed way it has come about.There was no leaflets or anything given to residents in these villages just word of mouth from people that had heard about it and passed the information on to others.Rossendale does need something it is stagnating.People are angry and have no faith in the council or mp due to past and on going issues.But we have to look past that and try and bring some life back to rossendale before it ends up with nothing at all.If people keep saying no to everything then people and developers will take their money else were other communities will benefit and rossendale as i have said will be left with nothing.Maybe people should start venting their anger into positivity and then maybe we might get some were.And not on the scrap heap.

But surely Charlie the point is that the angry reaction of residents is actually the answer that the Council are looking for.I was at that meeting and I also live in Loveclough. The anger vented was, from my perspective, purely a resounding NO TO MORE DEVELOPMENT certainly until the Council have addressed the infra structure problems that we ALREADY have. How can we consider development when we are already oversubscribed in our school, our roads are crumbling and jammed solid from 7.30 to 9.00 am and during the evening rush hour, the drainage systems cant cope and we have inadequate (invisible) policing? These are the realities NOW. I can remember when there were factories at Dunnockshaw, Oak Mill, Loveclough, Stoneholme and Crashawbooth. But we also had a local bus service and 3 schools and local shops which meant people didnt have to drive all the time. More houses means more cars. More development of units means more juggernauts going through the villages. I work in Blackburn because I cant get a job in Rossendale. I'd love to work locally and in no way am I a luddite but get real.This so called consultation is a complete lash up. It was done in a hurry, in an underhand way without disseminating information to residents.If this is how they are going to conduct this I dont trust RBC to look after the future of Rossendale and I certainly object to Alyson Barnes saying that citizens of the Borough who wish to voice their opinion brought the meeting into disrepute. If she was so bothered about time wasting - perhaps she should have been there at 5.30?? Give us some suggestions Mr Smith about how you will address the problems of infrastructure and then we can make an informed decision. ps for those of you who didnt know about it, there is a questionnaire hidden on RBC's website which has to be in by 9 July.

This is the problem with the planning system as it is at the moment. It is not necessarily the Council's fault as they are being pushed into a corner to adopt their Core Strategies. The Government is forcing Councils through the Regional Spatial Strategies, which are produced by an unelected quangos to produce these plans whether they like it or not, which forces them to allocate land for housing and employment that the quango tells them to provide.

You can't ask people what they want. What they want is no development in their villages! It's like asking someone what flavour of curry they want when they don't like curry.

I understand mary why people are angry.But being angry gets people no were.Anger just breeds anger.Im not saying lets throw houses up left right and centre either.But if people keep saying no to everything that is suggested then as i have said people and developers will take their money else were.Every time something has been suggested in this valley its always been landed with a big no and look at the shambles its left behind it.Rossendale will be left with nothing if something isnt done sooner rather than later.

Good for the residents. I used to live in Harle Syke, it was pleasant until the house builders turned it into a gigantic housing estate.
All the big builders are bothered about is making money, they don't care about destroying communities.

You better get used to it, these areas will be built on, the pressure for housing increases year on year, our towns and cities are turning into war zones with various ethnic ghettos, so the people with money are getting out, they want to live in areas where its peaceful and quiet, things will only get worse, Britains being swamped and all you people who think you were immune in your quiet little picturesque villages are going to feel the knock on effect of England being one of the most densely populated places in the world.

Firstly I did not say that residents brought the meeting into disrepute....Alex!

Secondly the meeting was arranged by myself in addition to the consultation sessions arranged by officers to ensure that Goodshaw residents had an additonal opportunity to have their say. The meeting was meant to have been an opportunity for residents to speak on a one to one level with members of the forward planning team, between the hours of 5:30 and 8:00, (on a drop in type basis)It was never meant to be a large scale public meeting, anyone who knows the building will know that it does not have the capacity to hold a large number of people.

Once I realised that there were too many people there for the session to be meaningful, the meeting was rearranged for a more suitable venue (subject to numbers of course). I understand fully why residents are concerned, I live in the ward too and do not want to see large scale development either...I think we are still suffering from the last lot of development, which has seen village children turned away from the village school!

My apologies once again but I would like to reassure residents that what was done was done in good faith.

I hope to see people at the rearranged meeting on Wednesday, where hopefully everyone will get an opportunity to feed into the consultation process.