Letter to the Editor: In reference to the approved planning application for a campsite at Corner House, Yorkley Wood Road.

We attended the planning meeting on July 11 which was an absolute shambles.

When asked show wide Yorkley Wood Road was, no one knew. The planning officer and highways representative were making guesses, anything between 2.5 metres to 4.5 metres.

It is actually 2.75 metres. This was to define if the road was wide enough to carry a car and a caravan.

The road has no lighting or pavements and is prone to flooding in heavy rain. As a caravan is approx. 2.25 metres wide, it means pedestrians have to practically climb the hedge to be safe.

A planning application for a single dwelling was recently turned down on Yorkley Wood Road (presumably by the same planning committee) because the road was deemed to be unsafe. How can that same committee pass it to be safe for caravans and motorhomes now?

It beggars belief!! The committee members were mainly silent when discussing the issue and the vice chairman reluctantly seconded the motion for debate a deathly silence came from the members of the planning committee.

The uncomfortable body language was palpable. It appeared the committee did not want to discuss the planning application at all, and therefore it could go through ‘on the nod’.

The highways representative kept referring to the public right of way which joins Yorkley Wood Road (the access to this campsite) as a highway.

It most definitely is not, also Yorkley Wood Road has a sharp right hand bend which was not mentioned, where the public right of way access road joins Yorkley Wood Road. 

Cars using this public right of way from the existing holiday camp site totally ignore vehicles coming up the hill on Yorkley Wood Road and usually pull straight out. 

Numerous letters of objection were sent to the planning authority along with a 70 signature petition which was apparently ignored. 

If these objections were noted and taken into account the outcome should have been very different and the application turned down.

J. Brown and D Lyne, Yorkley