NO! to Park & Ride at Patcham Court Farm
Mike Weatherley with Cllrs Brian Pidgeon and Geoffrey Theobald OBE and local residents who would be evicted under the scheme
Patcham
residents were shocked to learn, via the Evening Argus (19th January 2005) - and
not from the Council direct - that six family homes, including three grade lll
listed farm cottages, and surrounding countryside allotments, are under threat
of demolition to make way for a huge Park & Ride scheme on derelict Patcham
Court Farm. The area is on the edge of a conservation area and is a designated
area of outstanding beauty. Most of the farm cottage residents have lived there
circa 10 years, and one, a former dairy herdsman, has lived in his cottage for
35 years. Allotment holders too are preparing for a fight, as some of them have
tended their plots for as long as 30 plus years.
Labour,
at a Policy & Resources committee meeting on 26th January 2005, pushed for
approval, but Conservatives were successful in ensuring that the
proposals were not agreed and now a more detailed report on both Patcham
Court Farm (and surrounding green space and homes), and 'Braypool' (north of the
A27) bypass will be done.
The council's own report puts Patcham Court Farm at the bottom of the list of five most suitable sites south of the A27. But Labour are pushing to make Patcham Court Farm the number one preferred site for development of a park and ride facility. If this goes ahead, the six family homes, including the three listed cottages, will be bulldozed, along with neighbouring allotments, to make way for a 900 space car park and bus terminal.
Message
from Mike Weatherley Conservative Parliamentary Candidate
Before
we even start to consider sites, I question whether the claims about how many
people would use park and ride is correct. I doubt that people want to be
lumbered carrying shopping all day? Or
want to add an extra leg to their journey on a night out in the many
entertainment venues in the city? So these facilities are not the ‘one stop’
solution that some claim.
“Park
and ride at Patcham Court Farm was considered in 1998 and the council head of
economic development at the time, John Packman, said “Park
and ride was needed in north Brighton but it was unlikely that Patcham Court
Farm was the right site.” If this
was the case in 1998, then it most certainly still is now as nothing has
changed. It is worth noting that
the new scheme is nearly double the number of parking spaces than the original
proposal.
“For
some situations, park and ride is a good idea - if the right site can be found.
But Patcham Court Farm is the wrong site.
“Waitrose
put forward plans in 1997 for a new supermarket.
They were turned down because…………..of traffic volumes.
“And
I have seen many quotes from people supporting the scheme that if this goes
ahead we can then ‘slash car parking in the centre’. This is the wrong
approach. An integrated approach recognises that no one option is the solution.
To ‘Unblock Brighton’ a whole range of options need to be adopted –
approaches that simply aim to exclude cars from our City do not consider the
whole picture. Our tourism and retail industries in the centre of Brighton rely
on people. It is incumbent upon Politicians to sort out ways to make it easy for
people to get into the centre by the method they choose. All I hear from Labour,
the Greens and the Lib Dems are proposals to keep people OUT of Brighton.
“What
I want to see is a properly thought through integrated transport policy.
But sadly this latest example proves the Labour councillors are simply
plucking ideas out of thin air and incapable of leading a debate or putting
forward imaginative ideas. “