Local Plan Consultation, did you go?

Heanor’s Town Council consulted with residents today at the Town Hall, did you go?

If you missed the meeting there is a consultation form on the ABVC website.

If you didn’t know about it, then perhaps not… it seems you only get memos from Facebook these days, oh and libraries.. Whatever happened to the days of posting leaflets and face to face door knockers with clipboards?… 

If you went to the meeting, I hope you got the info you needed; we didn’t get much clarity, especially on Leafy Lane and the woods.

To be fair to the ABVC planning department, they did put on a good display board and supplied residents with detailed printouts of the proposed local plan, and someone was available to try and help out with 101 questions thrown at them from residents.

However, for us, this plan doesn’t go far enough, especially for the Leafy Lane woodland.

If the Council wants to protect and enhance land which acts like a carbon sink as mentioned in their proposed local plan then they need to go further.

A good start would be to amend the proposed plan for Leafy Lane such as removing the wooded area from the big red-lined box, they own the land, and only they have the power to do this!

Secondly, ABVC should not offer to sell this Woodland to potential developers. It has no TPO and there is nothing to stop preemptive felling. It happens all over neighbourhoods up and down the UK, you only have to look at the news.

While face-to-face consultations are great for extra info and to give some feedback, they are not enough for objecting. The same can be said for Facebook comments and petitions. These are just platforms to let voices be heard but in planning, they are not formal objections and hold no real weight. So we need your help to go further.

If you are an ABVC resident living in Heanor and surrounding areas and feel passionate about protecting these trees and wildlife and are against housing plans on Leafy Lane we are asking if you could shout louder and write an objection letter. (Valid reasons for consideration are listed on the petition page). If you need help, just drop an email to leafylanewoods@gmail.com and we will do our best to offer advice where we can.

We are an amazing community, lets do this!�

Fun fact sourced from the woodland trust:

Only around 13% of the UK is covered in woods and forests. The UK is the second least wooded country in Europe after Ireland. Europe’s average tree cover is 44%.

Not enough trees are being planted in the UK, meaning we could soon be in a period of deforestation.