Letter: Who Is Looking After the ‘Public Good’ in All This Development?

Published on: 19 Dec, 2016
Updated on: 19 Dec, 2016

From Ben Paton

The cathedrals proposal to develop parts of Stag Hill illustrates that the draft local plan is an unholy alliance of a collection of vested interests against the common good.

The purported “common good” is a housing “need” which has been calculated on the basis of a secret model which has never been disclosed to the council – let alone anyone else.
The owners of the promoted sites are all motivated by private pecuniary gain.

The alliance of the secret and unscrutinised estimation of the “public good” with the private gains of a handful of landowners is a conspiracy against the public.

Sadly the Church of England is showing that its tactics and ethics are no better than those of the average profit-motivated property developer. It is just looking out for itself – just like the other property developers.

Who is looking after the public good? Who is taking account of the cumulative and accumulative effects of all the individual schemes on transport, school and road infrastructure? Certainly not the borough council or the county council or central government. All they ever do is blame each other.