From Stewart Chalkley, Hucknall
“QUESTION TO THE CABINET MEMBER FOR SOCIAL HOUSING.
Ashfield District Council is proposing to develop housing on the allotment site on Wesley Street, Annesley Woodhouse. There has been a tremendous amount of inaccurate and mistruths coming from elected members of the Ashfield Independents.
CAN YOU, THE PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR SOCIAL HOUSING, PLEASE TELL ME:
As residents form Annesley want to produce their own fruit and vegetables, why has this site been targeted for development, when there is a waiting list for occupation?”
Minutes:
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the following question had
been submitted by Mr. Stewart Chalkley.
“QUESTION TO THE CABINET MEMBER FOR SOCIAL HOUSING.
Ashfield District Council is proposing to develop housing on the
allotment site on Wesley Street, Annesley Woodhouse. There has
been a tremendous amount of inaccurate and mistruths coming from
elected members of the Ashfield Independents.
CAN YOU, THE PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR SOCIAL HOUSING,
PLEASE TELL ME:
As residents form Annesley want to produce their own fruit and
vegetables, why has this site been targeted for development, when
there is a waiting list for occupation?”
The Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Council and Social Housing, Councillor Tom Hollis, responded to the question as follows:-
“Thank you Mr. Chalkley for asking the question…and although many members of the public don’t take the opportunity to ask many questions at these meetings, I certainly welcome the fact that you not only engage with the process but that you have come forward to ask the question. I appreciate that and I welcome your engagement.
Just to be clear Mr. Chalkley, and I hope you are happy with this, the Council as you have noticed is looking to improve a number of grot spots and underused areas across Ashfield and is trying to get the best use out of the land that Ashfield District Council is responsible for on behalf of the public. You would however appreciate that unlike private organisations the Council quite rightly follows a transparent process about considering its options.
Many of these options do include my portfolio in social housing. You will understand that we have a massive, long waiting list and only 7,500 houses to put people in. So often that is always a consideration on any site that we consider and in fact the Council has purchased a number of empty properties to clear them up and turn them into social housing and we also buy social housing off developers etc.
Particularly in relation to this site I probably am frustrated that you seem to have been misled by potentially other parties’ interests. In fact, the site is a site that, while we considered our option for housing and going back to the point that any option we consider has to be in the public setting, quite rightly as your frustrations have been made clear, it is an allotment site and an allotment site that has a waiting list.
My colleague, sat to the left of me, Councillor Deakin, is the portfolio holder for said spaces and I am aware of her having an ambition to look at turning this into a well-used site. Although I can’t say for sure what this Council is going to do Mr. Chalkley, it is a democratic process of which I’m only one thirty-fifth of the membership, I’d hope he’d trust that it is extremely likely that if he can read between the lines here, that this site will be made use of as an allotment site and I’d hope that he would help us in that endeavour Chairman.”
The Chairman then gave Mr. Chalkley the opportunity to ask a supplementary
question and he responded as follows:-
“Thank you, Chairman, and thank you Councillor Hollis. I think I’m pleased with your reply and it seems like it will be put back into allotments if that is the case. Surely it would be better to put it back into allotments than spend £70,000 relinquishing a covenant that I’m sure the criteria for it have not been met. I’ve been informed that Welbeck Estates and the National Allotment Society have opposed your proposals and they would like to see the 149 people that are on the allotments waiting list for the Kirkby in Ashfield District alone, being accommodated. So, I hope this can be done in the near future.
Would someone please give me that assurance?”
The Portfolio Holder for Council and Social Housing, responded to the
supplementary question as follows:-
“Yes, with a simple and clear answer that Mr. Chalkley will be very pleased with when the official outcome is made clear. When the decision is made.”