Peter Blaine

Saturday was a full day. In the morning I had my surgery with Nigel Aldis in Lloyds Chemists. We had a steady stream of visitors - it was a nice day and everybody seemed cheerful. We picked up a number of tasks to do.
Immediately afterwards I rushed home to change and get my bike to go down to Dunstable where the County and Luton road safety people were holding a Motorcycling Safety event. This is important because injuries to motorcyclists are far too high. The great attraction was the presence of Carl Fogarty who I was lucky enough to meet (I’ll see if I’ve mastered the technology to upload the photo when I get it). The event was very well organised and a great success with many bikers arriving and many people signed up for training, observed rides etc. etc.
Next I was off to Bedford to help friends and colleagues who are campaigning hard in Kingsbrook ward. They help me a lot, so I was happy to spend a little time there.
I got back in Sandy just in time to make the St Swithun’s Singers concert in the Methodist Church. This was one of their lighter and very enjoyable occasions with the opportunity for a chat over some excellent refreshments. The choir really is top notch and we really are lucky to have them.
Finally, I was walking through the town late in the evening and heard the police helicopter which turned out to be circling and using its search-light beyond the A1. There was also police activity in West Road and it looked as if they had made some arrests. Everybody would be a lot happier if there was less crime but it was good to see the police taking action - and hopefully with success.

Thursday saw the planning appeal hearing following Mid Beds Planning Committee’s turning down the developer’s application for flats. They already have permission for offices.
My view is that there has been far too little (if any) benefit for Sandy and its Town Centre in the whole development of the Jordan’s site. The local plan said that the area should have “mixed use”, not that it should be overwhelmingly housing (which is what we’ve got). The only use other than housing is that the old chapel is offices (but there we were promised a restaurant). We are all entitled to feel angry and let down that what should have included an extension to our town centre facilities is just more housing. The Magnolia House site is all that is left and, if the developers don’t want the offices that they have permission for, the site should be used to benefit the town.
Magnolia House wasn’t included with the Jordan’s site for mixed use in the local plan - it wasn’t supposed to be knocked down! However, land at the rear, included in the present application for flats, was. I was pleasantly surprised that the inspector seemed keen to ask questions on this aspect, so we will have to see whether he finds this aspect to be important.
The rest of the discussion was mainly about things like whether the residents of flats could reasonably be expected to enjoy sitting outside in front of the building with the traffic, including heavy lorries going by.
Nigel Aldis and myself were the only councillors present and I think we put forward as good a case as we could have hoped to. We’ll see in a few weeks time what the inspector and the vaguaries of planning law decide.