Thomas Gainsborough landscape could be blighted by 170 home development
A PLAN to build 170 new homes on a site made famous by Sudbury's most famous son Thomas Gainsborough has been labelled "cultural vandalism" ahead of a public meeting into it.
The rolling landscape immortalised by the painter in his acclaimed masterpiece "Cornard Wood" will be concreted over under proposals laid our by housing chiefs.
Concerned members of Great Cornard parish council have called a public meeting to hear concerns over the controversial Persimmon Homes plan to develop land east of the village's Carsons Drive.
Stefan Kosciuszko, owner of Abbas Hall, Great Cornard, and a leading objector to the scheme, urged concerned residents to attend the meeting.
He said: "This development is not yet set in stone. The cultural vandalism this represents is a travesty, when one considers the fact that in excess of 2,000 people have signed their objections to this development going ahead."
The land was redesignated as building land in 2006, when an amendment to have the planned development erased from the Local Plan, narrowly lost in a 14-12 split of votes at a meeting of Babergh District councillors.
Now the site features in the Local Plan, which dictates home and land use policy in the area, it is feared that Babergh granting planning permission is inevitable, meaning it is now more a question of what will happen on the site rather than if.
Michael Evans, chairman of the Cornard Tye Residents Association, said the planning system had "shown itself to be corrupt" from the start
He said: "Planning officers insisted on getting this development inserted into the Local Plan at the last minute and councillors have been told that they have to vote in favour of it, having their arms twisted, otherwise if it were thrown out it would have wasted years of work."
See this week's paper for full story.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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