Village Matters

LoSRA Says

LOSRA celebrates its 50th Anniversary

To celebrate our 50th anniversary we will be holding a social gathering at the Sunbury Cricket Club on Thursday 20th October from around 6pm through to 10pm. It will simply be an unstructured occasion for local people, former committee members, newsletter deliv-erers, representatives of other local groups (Embroidery, Riverside Arts Centre, Friends of Sunbury Park), councillors and anyone else to come and have a drink and a chat, some-thing to eat, and spend as much or as little time there as they want. The bar will be open for people to buy their own drinks and cater-ing will be provided by Surplus to Supper at no cost to those attending. We decided that rather than a buffet, a more impressive, inter-esting and easier option would be to offer a couple of hot dishes – possibly a curry and a lasagne, which StS can prepare in advance. We will have tables laid out in the hall where people can sit down to eat; and live music will be provided by the Riverside Jazz Trio. Do put the date on your calendar.

Examination process and public involvement

The last two issues of this Magazine announced the emerging Local Plan public consultation and what the Planning Inspector will consider.
The public consultation concluded on 19th September and now we must simply await the announcement of a date for the Examination in Public (which may be many weeks away yet). The Examination will be a series of open public sessions which members of the public can attend and observe. At the Examination, officers and expert consultants appointed by the Council will be questioned by the inspec-tor on how the Local Plan meets the tests of soundness. It is usual for developers and land-owners to attend, often legally represented by barristers, to speak in favour of or oppose elements of the plan. The Council will also be represented by a barrister. There are often complex legal and technical points to be made and defended. Members of the public and residents’ associa-tions who made representations during the Reg 19 consultation will be asked if they wish to appear at the Exami-nation in person and speak to the Planning Inspector directly on issues of importance to them. Following the Examination, the inspec-tor will issue a report to set out whether the plan can be recommended for adoption and if not, what needs to be changed in order to be found sound. Once this has taken place, all Members of the Council will be asked to adopt the plan at a formal meeting. If adopted, the policies in the Local Plan and the Staines Development Framework will carry full weight and supersede former policies in older documents.
This Association has submitted its representa-tion and made it known that we wish to appear at the EIP. It will be published on our website and by newsletter.
www.losra.org