Another piece of magnificent negotiation from our Muppets of Market Street.

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/news/16...-developer.html

If people will keep voting Tory....

So the poor developer cannot make a good profit even when the land is as good a free? If so, how is that?

So the new supposedly Gateway into Newbury is not actually a Gateway as you now have to trek from the Train Station to the Bus Station, instead of them being adjacent, if you wish to travel any distance villages etc that is not accessible by train and don't wish to have the expense of a taxi?

Just imagine if you requested a quotation for someone to come and tidy up your garden or whatever and the answer was "well you will have to give me the land" ?

What is going to happen when all the land has been given away?

Would it have not been of more value to Newbury to give the land to a Housing Association and let them build desperately wanted social housing on the land? I know of several youg couples who are not earning too bad a wage but still unable to afford a mortgage or private rents!
Why more retail units as Parkway and the Kennet Centre are still far from full?

Let them eat cake? They're building us a new bus station for heanens sake, can't they find a nice warm bench there!

Hear, hear! Although that would jeopardise the promised flats earmarked for 'je suis Charlie's mates.

It is easy to see the real reason for the lack of affordable housing when you see councils Like West Berkshire Council misusing (in my opinion) public spaces like this. And it is also no-wonder we have a feeble public transport infrastructure when you have the same council overseeing that too.

Yes but not near the supposed Gateway of Newbury and of course it will be back to making it less accessible for buses to negotiate to and from..........but as usual all thoughts are for the poor Developer and the Council just rolls over as usual!

I wonder what the final cost for ratepayers will be this time when the plans considerably alter before completion and things don't quite go as projected?

Still I suppose it will give us something else to admire as we are stuck in the traffic jams for hours as there is a complete lack of planned infrastructure to cope with all this land giving away!

With Corbyn leading Labour you don't need much pushing for people to vote Tory at the next election.

What, the motto from our beloved council

"Newbury a nice place to live - but fecking horrible to travel in by either car or public transport"

Amen brother.

What's the point of having a bus station when there are so few buses?

Have as many bus stations as you like, but without the buses, you aren't going to get anywhere...literally! I don't really think we can blame the abysmal public transport provision in Newbury on this or any other developer. That's down to us and our Council.

In any event, a 'bus station' is the last thing we need. Its a place where buses park up. We need something where they are constantly calling and moving on....a bus stop. Most other towns have reasonably modern ones; which actually tells the prospective passenger when the next bus will arrive. Ironic, that in the nations communications capital we can't even do that. Ah, perhaps that's because they've also noticed we have no buses!

I'd certainly agree with the comments about giving away the land and love the front garden analogy! However, if the neighbours want you to tidy your garden to make the area look better and you've been spending all your spare cash on attempting to repair your derelict shed and threatening to sue your neighbour because his dripping WC overflow might have damaged your daffs, you don't have much choice; particularly when you've also lost all that overtime you had coming in.

So, the real answer is that the development is primarily residential. That means the prospects will be able to jump on and off trains, do their little bit of shopping, go for a nice walk all without needing a car or a bus. You've reached Newbury - sleep tight!

Correct (in the main) but that wasn't the point of the post: how is it that a developer cannot make a decent wad from a bit of land in the middle of Newbury when they have already been given it for free!

Yes but is it only the Developer that has to make money from it?

In the main, most developers are very highly geared. Their money is actually borrowed, dependent on the risk, at top end rates. They'll need to spend most of it up front and effectively doing nothing until the place is built and ready to sell. The rewards might well be high, but so are the risks. I'm sure you know that and one would have to believe our Council does as well.

Nothing wrong with pump priming, but the land need not have be given away, there are several other pretty obvious ways of using the land as a contribution, at worse, taking equity in the business for it. From what we've been told, it looks as if they haven't done that; which must suggest desperation. Not a good tactic and we know from experience locally just what that means from now on.

How many of us have written to our local Councillors asking these question? I haven't heard reports of any debate or serious discussion in the Council chamber. That must suggest our Councillors believe the majority of us are at least satisfied as things stand.

Of course.

Again, I cannot believe that land is not worth anything to the council! It seems incredible; ridiculous even.

I would still rather vote Tory than the useless Lib Dems and would never, ever vote for Labour.

There's the start of the problem when people vote for parties rather than personalities at local level.

Never say never!

I was a Tory councillor but I voted Labour last election. I thought it was the right thing to do.

Are they? Who is?

I've seen no plans, not even any promises of a new bus station - just a statement that the bus station will move to the wharf. What will this bus station look like? A load of buses parked on some tarmac and a little shelter to allow a few passengers to get out of the rain - anything more?

OTE is right, bus stations are largely speaking redundant - just look at how busy the current one isn't. The current situation is pretty poor - put a decent sized bus stop on Market St and it would be no worse with the new development. It's the lost opportunity that is a waste - even it the old chestnut about an integrated transport hub has flaws (notably the lack of bus services). If WBC are going to give away the land they should ensure that the redevelopment of the area improves things for Newbury, it should not just be about profit.

Has anyone else noticed that there will be fewer parking spaces in this wonderful new development than are available on the site now? So the hundreds of new residents will have no parking? Or WBC employees will have to pay to park in town - or get free parking in the existing parks, filling up spaces currently used by shoppers? Or the number of commuters using the station is going to fall?

West Berks Council's philosophy seems to be to heck with what would be a benefit, so long as it looks nice. Sadly this current bunch of Muppets are flogging assets for vanity's sake.

They are not even flogging they appear to be shoveling land FREE to Developers as fast as they can. Yet the ratepayers have to pick up the bill when things start to go pear shape and the plans are drastically altered before the ink is even dry on the first set of plans!

...or repair work to existing public land like Vickie Park.

Let's, for a change, be kind about WBC and look at Newbury with our rose tinted glasses on. We have pedestrianised shopping streets. We have a new shopping centre and we, as a result, have another one that is in serious decline but we can't blame them for that. We do have a John Lewis, which is a good thing, even though the council didn't plan that but hey, they were able to roll over and rush it through the planning. There have been a number of apartments built in that development as the targets set by central government had to be met so 10 out of 10 for that but oh dear, our poor council really had the wool pulled over its eyes with the low cost housing issue but they couldn't help that, those bad boys from SLI out maneuvered them.
We have a bridge over the river at parkway and they had no choice but to stop it up to everything except buses and taxis, it wasn't their fault that there was no traffic management out of the wharf and once the pub had been pulled down and KFC and the cleaners built on the land where there might have been better access they had no way of seeing that coming. They just had to make the best of it and stack up loads of fines for the ratepayers that did what they have done for years, drive over it We have a bridge over the railway from the new racing estate but they can't make the developer open it up to all and sundry to hope to alleviate our traffic problems. That's not the councils fault, it's down to an ungracious developer.
Traffic in Newbury at the moment is not the councils fault, it's because the railway people are stretching it out replacing one of the critical crossing places. That's not their fault of course and they have made it quite clear of that on the signboards posted around. There is no way they can put any pressure on Railtrack just in case they don't get the fabled two way bridge. It is helpful that the council have acknowledged the problem and they have let us know that there is no gain without pain and we will just have to put up with it.
The council are giving us half hour free parking everywhere, well some places anyway and of course if SLI weren't such a difficult group to deal with the return from their parking would have been helpful but it's only fair that the council give them some of our parking income.
Don't worry though another superb deal is being negotiated with another hard up developer to revive another swathe of land. Most of us are gagging for this development and as buses are now obsolete, the forward looking council has rightly given the integrated transport hub the heave ho. The picturesque wharf with our nice new museum and posh library will have the distinct advantage of having smelly diesel buses parked over it and the plans for the basin for the narrow boats was a silly idea. No idea who thought that one up, certainly not WBC.
One other thing we don't have to worry about thanks to WBC is that we will get fully integrated traffic lights all round the Robin Hood to ensure that the new road junction to help out yet another developer has a positive impact on traffic flow. The council know that we will be more than happy to part with those ugly trees alongside the A339 and give up a large patch of Victoria Park.

You see when you put it like that we are indebted to the council for their efforts.

It's only a problem to you. To me and others we have memories of what the Lib Dems cost Newbury taxpayers and we are well aware that Labour, should they ever get into local power here, would cost even more. The problem is the more liberal (and left) seem to think the public have bottomless pockets to be raided so that any heart tugging cause can be funded. We don't.

The liberal and left don't think the public have bottomless pockets, but they have a different way of funding things. Often high council tax is a result of low government settlement, except this time, the Tories are squeezing the low paid and the public sector 'until the pips squeak'.

Being a member of any particular party makes little difference - at local level.

'Large' patch? Are you sure? Or might this be another one of these hyperbolic moments you like to come up with....

Large or small patch should not be discussed.......any patch at all should be the discussion especially as it is mainly for the benefit of the developer and certainly not for the benefit of the local motorists.......unless you believe the hyperbole of the council who state another junction on the A339 will have no impact. But there again I suppose he is reasonably correct in that traffic that, in the main, is already at a standstill can only remain at a standstill but perhaps for a lot longer than usual?

Can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Section 106 money is meant to be used to mitigate the impact of a development. More houses equals more traffic and congestion occurs at junctions. Use the money to widen the junction with another lane and that problem can be mitigated. The loss of a few trees is hardly the end of the world.

Well according to the environmentalists a few trees could very well be the end of the world especially the rainforest ones.

But why try to cram another omelette in the pan if it is already overflowing??

Well as a left-leaning liberal I do believe that the state should take care of the vulnerable and disadvantaged, but I don't accept that this is overly burdensome. Personally I'd support West Berkshire Mencap with the money that we spend on the fox-furred ceremonial mayor.

Presumably 'we' would rather p*** the money away on paying huge fees for consultants and planners to produce myriad glossy reports which can then be conveniently forgotten! At least you get something tangible back if you bung a few quid to the local charity operations.

It's also well worth remembering that if Mencap and its like didn't operate locally, guess who'd be picking up an even bigger tab? Yep, the Workhouse building still needed maintenance and the Beadle still expected to be paid! 'We' often forget that.