UPDATE - Kensey Valley Meadow

I've had a meeting this morning with an officer from the Planning and Development Department to discuss Kensey Valley Meadow. We toured the development looking at the current state of play.

As regular readers will know, I'm concerned about:

- the lack of work on the development;
- maintenance issues
- when the roads will be adopted
- the promised play area

The latest news on all these is:

Elan Homes are currently at work on a number of the plots where the buildings have been built. I understand that they are fitting them out for sale. But there is no work happening on the plots where the foundations have been laid but above ground work not started. Once work on the development has started there is no effective time limit on Elan for completion. I have asked officers to establish from them whether they have an indicative timetable and to ensure that the fencing around the unfinished plots is safe and secure.

On maintenance, we have good news! The bushes in the middle of the roadway to the upper section of the development have been pruned back. I have asked officers to ensure that this happens regularly and to ask Elan for their maintenance timetable.

Adoption - I have asked officers again to look at adopting the upper section - where all building is completed and roads finished.

Play Area - This was promised as part of the Section 106 agreement. A s106 agreement is made between a developer and the Council and is sometimes called 'planning gain'. The developer has promised to pay for additional services or to provide these as part of their application for planning permission. One of the promises made in gaining the permission for this development was that the developer would provide an 'equipped play area'. This is code for an area suitable for young children with swings, see-saws etc. To date there is nothing like this on the development and officers will be asking Elan to let us know where this will be and when they will install it.

Finally, I have asked officers to look at provision for a play area for older children. I think it is important to have an area suitable for ball games and none of the open spaces on the development at the moment are really fit for this.

More news as and when it happens.