HOOOH Statement at this evenings Town Council meeting: HOOOH (Hands Off Old Oswestry Hillfort) Statement to Oswestry Town Council, Mon 27th Jan 2014 at 7pm We welcome the Council’s continued recognition in its latest SAMDev response of the importance of Old Oswestry and of the responsibility to speak up for and protect the hillfort and its setting from harmful development. In particular, we welcome your strong response to OSW002 Jasmine Gardens as “not in the best interests of the future development of Oswestry “. We are however extremely disappointed at receiving no formal response from the Town Council to our Statement of Objections containing 17 key questions to be addressed – as such we question the legitimacy of an apparent consultation. A huge effort was put into this document by people from this town who care deeply for the hillfort and its protection. We believe any such decision or statement on these site allocations is premature, not least because it would be based on incomplete, highly selective, non-compliant reports with respect to the potential archaeological, ecological and geological riches of the site for the benefit of the town. Is it too much to ask, that the Town Council ensure that due diligence has been made, that proper processes have been followed? Because they havent been followed. 1. The Geophysical Report by GSB Prospection remains un-published and unseen – including by English Heritage. 2. The Oxford North Report was never completed, with nearly half the trial trenches remaining untouched – I quote from their report: “Furthermore, a geophysical survey was carried out by GSB Prospection Ltd in 2007, of which the results were used to inform the location of 24 trial trenches stipulated by the HEO SCC. However, Areas A and B (Trenches 1-8 and 23), situated to the west of the Gobowen Road running northwards through the proposed development area, were subsequently omitted from this phase of work as the planning proposals had been temporarily suspended for these two areas.” How can a site allocation for housing be made on land when we dont know what riches lie beneath it? It makes no sense! And we believe its time for this ignorance to stop, for Oswestrys sake, and the Town Council can bring some much-needed common sense to the process. 3. Let us look at the National Planning Policy Framework. Section 132. “When considering the impact of a proposed development on the significance of a designated heritage asset, great weight should be given to the assets conservation. The more important the asset, the greater the weight should be. Significance can be harmed or lost through alteration or destruction of the heritage asset or development within its setting. As heritage assets are irreplaceable, any harm or loss should require clear and convincing justification. Substantial harm to or loss of a grade II listed building, park or garden should be exceptional. Substantial harm to or loss of designated heritage assets of the highest significance, notably scheduled monuments, protected wreck sites, battlefields, grade I and II* listed buildings, grade I and II* registered parks and gardens, and World Heritage Sites, should be wholly exceptional.” Note: wholly exceptional for scheduled monuments, which can be harmed through .... development within its setting Clearly this amounts to Shropshire Council neglecting their duties as outlined within NPPF. We would also like to highlight the somewhat specious point, that because this is planning policy rather than a planning application, that we should therefore go ahead and allocate land to housing and wait for the planning process to clean up the mess. Well, it hasnt served us thus far. And using the word “policy” does little to alter the INTENTION to build houses. Any statement made by the Town Council must take into account the clear and indisputable fact that the regulation archaeological and ecological work has not been done. This is fundamental. And for a Schedule Ancient Monument of this stature, it borders on a scandalous dereliction of duty. Oswestry Town Council made an assumption, not an unreasonable one, that English Heritage would have performed the necessary scrutiny. But they didnt. So, you have been left in the position, not of doing the scrutiny yourself, but on behalf of the people of Oswestry, demanding that it is done before any site allocations are made by Old Oswestry Hillfort. Our proposals: First of all, we would ask for and appreciate the councils formal response to our Heritage Statement and the 17 key objections made. And our main proposal for which we would again appreciate an immediate response - that there be a moratorium of these three site allocations OSW002/3/4, that they are removed from the SAMDev process until legitimate due diligence and work has been carried out using an industry standard “staged approach” around the setting of the hillfort. This is the very minimum that 2 Scheduled Ancient Monuments and one of the countrys two best examples of Iron Age Hillforts deserves.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:06:23 +0000
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