The Welney Website
proposed Community Hall
planning application
re-submitted
Report first posted 12th Feb 2011, page amended/updated
Monday, 12 November 2012
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FEB 2011 This is the 4th of a series of reports by the webmaster on the new community building proposed by the Parish Council. You can dip into any of them, but to get a clearer understanding the reports are best read in date order as shown at bottom right of this page. |
Firstly, my thanks to website visitor Graham Redman for drawing my attention recently to the planning application, ref 10/02089/F, that Welney Parish Council (WPC) lodged through their agent in December 2010.
In May 2010, the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk (BCKLWN) refused permission for a new hall-cum-pavillion in the north-east corner of Welney Playing Field.
The reason was disturbance to the neighbouring property, but other issues raised included the remote location, a pavilion pointing into the sun, risk of injury to batsmen due to glare from parked cars, possibility of cricket balls damaging parked cars, reduction of field size would prevent use for football, and no connection to the new mains sewerage system.
The Council instructed their architect to draw new plans to site the building in the north-west corner, the site of the current pavilion.
The plan below is a section of the new plan submitted in Dec 2010 with some text added by the Webmaster (by hand to distinguish it from the architect's notes); and coloured borders added to three areas for clarification - the existing pavilion is outlined red; the bottom of the one-metre high earth ramps surrounding the new hall is shown blue, and the cricket pitches are outlined in green.
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PLEASE NOTE. If you have visited this page before you may need to "refresh" the page to see the latest version. Also, please "allow blocked content" (if prompted) to view correct layout & features. (Both notes apply to all pages). |
Some issues with the position
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Click plan for a larger view in a new window (or tab).
Some issues with the design
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If you are wondering how such a plan, with so many obvious defects, could have come about, it is because WPC have never involved Parishioners and users or potential users of the current Pavilion and Parish Hall, indeed this re-application plan was submitted without a single parishioner outside the Council seeing it. (Before the first application in Feb 2010 an open meeting was held one Saturday morning so the public could at least see the plans that were to be submitted the following month. But the plans were those of the Councillors and their architect, with the public excluded from the design process.)
Minutes of WPC meetings discussing the re-application show:
August 2010:
"Following discussion it was proposed by Cllr. Dobson, seconded by Cllr. Pratley and agreed with 5 in favour and 1 abstention, that the amended plan should be adopted".(Three of the 9 councillors were absent.)
September 2010:
stated that the agent had contacted the BCKLWN planning officer and
"they [BCKLWN] were happy with the revised proposals but queried if the position of the hall square to the boundary would interfere with the viewing and scoring of the cricket use."October 2010
"Following the last meeting a letter had been sent to Mr.Briscoe answering the questions he had previously raised with regard to the new site of the Community Centre and surrounds. A letter had also been sent to the Cricket Club and a reply received stating that they are 100% behind the building being built on the existing site."November 2010
"Councillors agreed that the size of the Children’s play area should be approximately one third of the size of the new hall, and they were happy for it to be in the position as shown on the plan, adjoining the new hall."December 2010:
[which would put it out of sight of parents in the Hall]
"the planning office had advised that if we included the play area, and the teenagers shelter on the re-application, then it would thrown out, and we would loose the free re-application. It would mean starting from fresh with a new application and another fee of £670.00 or possibly more.
....... Mr.Briscoe was asked to go ahead with the reapplication simply for the new Community Centre as per the previous plans, but in the new position on the site of the Pavilion"
In January 2011, an objection to the plan above was lodged by Sport England because of the encroachment onto the field. The architects therefore produced "plan C", as below, turning the building clockwise a little.
This does give a good view of the building to all visitors, and the view of the field from the Hall is much improved but still not sufficiently. Encroachment still a problem though, so presumably to try to fool Sport England, the architect simply deleted a couple of the wickets from the drawing to make the distance between the cricket square and hall look greater.
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Do you know how much this has cost so far? Parish Council minutes Feb to Apr 2010 show: Architects fee £1468.75 Flood risk assessment £575.00 Planning application £670.00 Presumably some VAT will be re-claimable, possibly c£290 ? So total net cost so far £2420 ? |
Some issues with the position
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Click plan for a larger view in a new window (or tab).
This plan is a scoop for The Welney Website - it is not on the Borough Council Website (as at date of posting this article, 15th Feb).
It was sent by Mr Briscoe, the architect, in response to an enquiry by John Loveday, Chairman of Welney Croft Cricket Club. Some Parish Councillors have expressed surprise at learning about these plans. In fact, it seems some think neither plan shown here is correct. So what's going on? Who exactly is making the decisions?
Some issues with the design
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Acknowledgements. text © Peter Cox. If you think this report is incorrect, incomplete or unfair, please e-mail the webmaster, and your response will be added. |
The main problem with this whole scheme over the last few years is the refusal of the Chairman of the WPC to engage with Parishioners in the design, layout and positioning of the new building, even ignoring properly minuted decisions of the Council in 2007 in order to push forward his own ideas regardless of the detrimental impact on anyone else.
16th February Update. We understand WPC are to have an emergency meeting on Monday 22nd February 2011 to discuss the matter. Will they invite the public?
| Related pages on this website |
| Jun 2006 New Hall plans announced. |
| Mar 2010 Planning application |
| May 2010 Permission refused |
| Dec 2010 Re-application |
| Mar 2011 Re-application revised |
| May 2011 Permission granted |
| Welney Parish Hall |
| Playing field & pavilion |
| Children's play equipment |
| Related pages on external websites |
| Original application |
| Re-application, Dec 2010 |