Letters

Sunday 25 July 2004

Dear Save Coate!

Here is a copy of a letter I have sent to all Swindon Borough councillors

Promises for Coate

Dear Councillors

The Save Coate! coalition has asked me to express our thanks to councillors for keeping the Borough Council's promise with regard to securing the future of the Great Western Community Forest at Shaw.

Please might we remind councillors of promises related to land at Coate.

At the development control sub-committee meeting held on 11 July 1998, those Labour and Conservative councillors who supported the planning application for the new district hospital at Commonhead, did so on the grounds that it would not set a precedent for future development of the area.

With reference to land at Coate, the Chairman of the Committee was later quoted in the Evening Advertiser on 16 September 1999. Cllr Peter Owen said "We just can't get it across to people that this land is not there for development. We have said this on several occasions... There is no intention of developing on that site and there never was."

Peter Ellershaw, who was the Chief Planning and Transportation Officer at that time, commented that any such planning application relating to Coate would attract a clear and robust policy objection.

Please may we also take this opportunity to update you on the number of people who have signed the Save Coate petition. The figure has now shot up to over 8,000 signatures. The petition states that:

"We, the undersigned, believe that development of the Coate area will have a devastating impact on wildlife at Coate Water nature reserve. It would desecrate an area that has strong historic, literary and recreational attractions and destroy the last remaining pocket of unspoilt countryside close to Swindon. Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest contributes to the very best of the rich variety and abundance of wildlife that makes England's nature special and distinct from any other country in the world. We demand that a one kilometre buffer of land is left undeveloped next to Coate Water. We call upon Swindon Borough Council to say NO to development at Coate."

Such is the importance of Coate and Coate Water, the petition has attracted local [all wards and parishes in Swindon Borough], national and international public support.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Yours faithfully

Jean Saunders
jean@savecoate.org.uk

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