Labour group comments on the Chatham Dynamic Bus Station planning committee meeting

Date: 28th January 2010

Will Chatham Regret Tories’ Rushed Bus Station?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Last night the plans for the bus station were agreed, with all Conservative members now voting in favour, as the Labour Group had been predicting for months.
Chatham members especially had expressed their fears that despite the range of objections to the bus station the plans would be agreed in order to secure Government funding.
In their desperation to start work on the site, the request from Cllr Bill Esterson- ward member for the part of Chatham that includes the bus station- for a site visit was rejected by the Conservative members, thus restricting the input of residents.
Cllr Esterson said,
“In virtually every case, a site visit request from a ward member is honoured.  The fact that the Tories voted it down, for one of the biggest, most important and most contentious applications that’s been to this committee demonstrates how desperate they are, and their contempt for public opinion.”
“People have raised many compelling objections to this application, about the location, the trees, shelter and access.  The siting of this station will mean it’s difficult for less mobile residents to get their shopping to the station, and it will block off the river from the town, the very thing the Tories said they were trying to open up!”
“We will still be losing 19 mature trees as well.  I’m appalled by all of this, and think that people in Chatham have been badly let down by this bungling administration.  They’ve had four years to get it right, and we’ve ended up with this mess.”
Cllr Stephen Hubbard added,
“When the first bus station application was considered, Conservative members en bloc spoke against the application, raising a number of objections.  But last night they said that new application had addressed all the concerns raised.”
“Considering that only a few things that have changed from the first application –it’s a few metres to the east, a different set of trees are to be cut down- I think there may be other reasons behind their change of heart.”
“This bus station will go a long way to putting Chatham on the map, but not how the Tories intended.”