Tonight we asked a question at ECDC Special Council Meeting:

“In view of the fact that Barratt Homes Northampton have failed to complete the works in the Kings Avenue area to the standard that will enable the CC to adopt the roads

Will the Council please confirm that all future developments, including those currently planned for North Ely, will include planning conditions that will ensure that developers build the public highways and facilities to a standard enabling them to be adopted by the County Council as advised by their Highways Department?”

The Council were also provided with the following additional information:

“I am a resident of the Cathedral View Development on Kings Avenue. This is a development built by Barratt Homes Northampton Ltd. Unfortunately, despite having lived there for 10 years, Barratt Homes have still not completed the work to a standard that will enable the adoption of the area by the County Council.

Despite having more than 10 years to do so, currently there are neither s104 nor s38 agreements in place for Longchamp Drive, Allen Road, Turner Drive and Orford Close and these are areas seemingly do not even comply with the county council highways requirements. Highways department have advised that the street lighting in particular is not compliant and will need to be replaced.

Barratt Homes have shown no desire to complete the works and the County Council insist there is nothing they can do at this stage because there are no legal agreements in place.

Sadly, this is not the first time in Ely that these problems have arisen with developments, with the Beresford Road area still having sections that the County Council will not adopt.

So this isn’t the first time that these problems have arisen, but we do want it to be the last.

These matters were never an issue for new developments that I have lived on in other parts of the country and I have, therefore, asked what needs to be done to prevent this problem in the future.

County Council Highways department were very clear on this:

“Sue Reynolds has advised East Cambs that there needs to be something in the Planning Documents about time scales for adoptions and completion of highways. Unless a Developer signs an agreement with us we are unable to take any action.”

In view of this, please will the Council confirm that all future developments, including those currently planned for North Ely will include planning conditions that will ensure that developers will build the public highways and facilities to a standard enabling them to be adopted by the County Council?”

The recording of the full Council meeting is available on YouTube. The question is asked at 5 minutes into the recording.

https://youtu.be/qjFG5XfKc7o?t=294

 

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