I have today written to Rebecca Coley, Trafford’s Chief Planning Officer to ask about the possibility of setting up a group that would be notified regularly of all planning applications that are received relating to the Stretford area. There is a lot going on that most people never find out about until too late – in other words till after planning permission is actually given (or refused). There is a group of this type covering Altrincham, but I’m not aware of any other examples in Trafford. Obviously the planners can’t send out details of all applications to anyone and everyone, just for logistical reasons, but they are willing to liaise with an official group.
The advantage of such a group is that no planning applications would slip through the net, and the group could notify any people who might be affected by, or interested in, an application. The group could also collate any comments, suggestions, objections etc, and feed them back to the planners.
I was kind of hoping that there might be a few people from around Stretford who would like to be part of such a group. I’d be happy to set it up and be part of it – hopefully being able to lend some of my planning background to discussion on any contentious issues. What would be really good would be if the group comprised people from different backgrounds and experience – planning, architecture, property management, employers, reps from voluntary organisations, commercial property owners, employees, reps from residents associations etc. I don’t think we’d need too many folk or it would get unwieldy, but I can find out from Rebecca how big the Altrincham group is and how it works and maybe take it from there?
We would need regular, but not frequent meetings, (socially distanced of course – at least at first) and we would need to be able to disseminate information to as much of the community as possible, quickly and efficiently – so a social media expert would also be handy!
I think I could only realistically cover Stretford at present (maybe Stretford and Longford Wards – possibly Gorse Hill and Clifton as well – although it might be better to have a separate group for those wards?). If anyone else would be seriously interested in following up planning proposals affecting Stretford and discussing issues with a view to sending comments to the planners, please get in touch. If there are enough dedicated folk interested, and we can set this thing up, then maybe we could help other groups from other parts of Trafford who would like to do the same thing? It’s important that we take ownership of the planning process as it affects our own communities, and I’m sure the planners would like to have such a group to be able to bounce ideas off.
Traffordnorthend 