You may have already heard, but the Town Council are withdrawing their application for parking on Asker Meadows! The Bridport News link is below, and below the Town Council response to our petition and submissions, and our email to them is below this. A lot of us had to shout pretty loud, but the Town Council did listen in the end. A big thank you again for your support, networking and practical help. http://bit.ly/1PEli31 Tuesday, 07 June 2016, 09:19a.m. +01:00 from Bob Gillis (Bridport TC) B.Gillis@bridport-tc.gov.uk: >Ged, thanks for all of this and I am issuing the following press release this morning. I would be very grateful though if you did not circulate until it has appeared in the papers tomorrow. I would also like to say how much I appreciate the way you have conducted your campaign and the spirit in which you have met and discussed these matters with the Town Council. As you say I also very much hope you will be happy to work with the existing group and be good if we could meet in due course to discuss making this happen. Thanks Bob Asker Meadows Planning Application to be Withdrawn Bridport Town Council is to review its planning application for temporary parking on Asker Meadows and the siting of the temporary classroom, following the closure of the consultation period on the application. Councillor Sarah Williams Leader of the Town Council stated: “The Town Council had always said that it would review this application after the closing date for consultation. It is clear that there is a lot of concern and opposition to the application and particularly use as a temporary car park. There is also a need for more work to address the comments from the statutory agencies. The Town Clerk will therefore bring a report to members recommending that the application is withdrawn. This recommendation will be reported to the Finance and General Purposes Committee on 15 June. Asker Meadows is an important asset for the Town Council and the work undertaken over recent years with the County Council has greatly increased the access to and use of the fields, as well as protecting the sensitive wildlife areas. The Town Council agreed to submit this application to try to address the particular problem of parking on specific busy days in the summer. There would have no permanent change to the surfacing or damage to the sensitive areas. We submitted the planning application to give everyone the opportunity to comment and I very much hope that the new Friends of Asker Meadows Group will now wish to work with the Town Council and the existing Asker Nature Reserve Project group on the future management of this key site. There still remains the wider issue regarding the need for additional parking in Bridport. The Town Council has been looking at how it could help to alleviate the situation, which the reason for this application being submitted. It is currently working on a Dorset wide application to the Coastal Community Fund to support access to the coast, which will include support for improvements to car parks. The Town Council is also supporting a project looking at community bus options and improving public transport provision. This work will continue and we would welcome any suggestions or ideas that people may have to address car parking issues in the town.” This was in response to our response to our email: Dear Bob, Daryl & Briport Town Councillors We thought we'd send you copies our submissions to WDDC and ask you, given the massive opposition to this application, will you put an end to this proposal, rather than seeking amendments and conditions? You’ve repeatedly promised not to ‘steamroller’ this application through and we ask you now to honour that. Our submissions include copies of the paper and online petitions together with comments. In total there are 1130 signatories. We emphasised that people were only to sign once and to have a knowledge of the nature reserve as residents or visitors. Even allowing for a few duplicates (we didn't have the time or stamina to check...) we feel it represents considerable opposition to the proposal . We also carried out a survey of 52 businesses from the town centre. We thought you might find this interesting as it does support your case for additional parking, especially Park & Ride. However, 83% of those surveyed were against the use of Askers for this purpose. It's also interesting how few of the shops and businesses in the centre are members of either the Chamber of Commerce or the Tourist Association. We've attached copies of the surveys and results for your use and interest. We feel the petition and survey results indicate that the majority of shopkeepers and residents oppose the application. Add to this the objections and conditions of Highways England, Natural England, the AONB and Dorset Wildlife Trust, and the case against this proposal seems overwhelming. Natural England and the DWT, in particular, have echoed the argument we've made from the outset and in our meeting with you: parking for the town centre isn't in keeping with the designation of Asker Meadows as a Nature Reserve. Best wishes Ged Duncan, Wendy Cutts, Antonia Phillips and Richard Wisbey for Friends of Asker Meadows PS. When this has settled down it might be useful to discuss how we can harness the huge support our campaign garnered. 384 people have signed up to be 'Friends'. It may be that we can tap this interest for volunteers, fundraising and canvassing opinion. As you have suggested, we could also offer our support to the existing steering and management of the reserve. Bcc: Friends of Asker Meadows and Petition Signatories From: Friends of Asker Meadows [mailto:askerfriend@gmail.com] Sent: 26 May 2016 21:15 To: b.burden@westdorset-weymouth.gov.uk; planning@westdorset-weymouth.gov.uk Subject: FAO R Burden - Application WD/D/16/000550 Asker Meadows OBJECTION: Friends of Asker Meadows (FAM) objects to this application as the field in question is protected by local and national planning policies, and because there is substantial opposition to the proposal from residents, visitors and shopkeepers. Hi Bob We’ve attached various documents assembled by Friends of Asker Meadows (FAM). FAM was set up specifically to oppose this application. 1130 people have signed online and paper petitions against the proposal and of these 384 have become registered supporters of FAM. We’ve also carried out a survey of 52 shopkeepers and business owners in South/West and East Streets, 83% of whom oppose the use of Asker Meadows for parking. We’ve attached our objection letter (‘FAM – Response to Application WD-D-16-000550), together with PDF copies of the paper and online petitions, online petition comments, the survey documents, and a document with a summary of the results from the survey. Best wishes Ged Duncan, Wendy Cutts, Antonia Phillips and Rich Wisbey On behalf of Friends of Asker Meadows