Town Council Objects to aspects of Wolverton Railway Works Plan

This is taken from from the council website copyright is with them but i felt i had to share it Over 100 members of the Wolverton community attended a lively public meeting on 10 November 2015 to find out more about the possible future of Wolverton Railway Works planned by developers St Modwen. The meeting was organised by Wolverton and Greenleys Town Council and Future Wolverton to promote public awareness of what is planned and to encourage local participation in the planning process. The Town Council welcomes development of the Works site provided it complies with the Wolverton Neighbourhood Plan. The Town Council especially wants to see preservation of employment (particularly rail industry employment) on this land and recognises that modern facilities will be needed for this. But the Town Council has raised objections to this application because St Modwen’s proposal does not re-use enough of the pre 1923 railway buildings to preserve the identity and heritage of the site and so does not conform to the Neighbourhood Plan. The Town Council also has concerns about the detail of the proposed retail and residential units and access to the redeveloped site. Chairman of the Town Council, Cllr Ansar Hussain stated “We want to work together with all interested parties to keep our rail industry employment and achieve a scheme for this site which preserves our past but helps Wolverton to move forward”. St Modwen’s application is due to be determined by MK Council in February 2016. Locally some rumours have been circulating that the application has been withdrawn but this is not correct. St Modwen has issued the following statement: “St. Modwen submitted a planning application in August 2015 and this same application is currently being processed by Milton Keynes’ planning department. As is standard procedure for large-scale planning applications like this one, St. Modwen is still having ongoing discussions with planning officers to provide additional technical information and to make minor amendments to the application as required; this is to ensure that the scheme and all the supportive documents are ready to be presented to the planning committee. As this application is large and very complex, more time is needed to carry out this stage of work so it looks like the application will now go to the committee in February 2016.” The Town Council may make further comments to the planning authority before February 2016 and members of the public are also able to comment on what is planned. To view St Modwen's outline planning application 15/02030/OUT please click the link http://bit.ly/1HRwsqx You can also find full details of how to participate in the planning process by visiting Milton Keynes Council's website: www.milton-keynes.gov.uk