The Planning Appeals for Driveme are due to start on the 20th of October, and they will run for 6 days.
You can still hand in a final letter of protest at the start of the appeals hearing, so please, if you have an opinion about this one way or the other, get writing.
There is an open meeting of the Parish Council on 15th of October in the Village Hall at 7:30 pm.
A letter from Stafford Borough Council has been delivered to say that the Public Inquiry is to be extended so that it will take 6 days. However this also means that the date of the Inquiry has been moved back to October.
The 16th and 17th of June have been reserved for the public inquiry inspector to hear submissions for and against the application.
Members of the public can attend the appeal hearing which will take place on the 16th of June at 10:00, you must be there when the Inquiry opens to attend
In a meeting in February an action group was set up to support the Parish Council and also Seighford Parish Council the main activity of this group will be to help raise funds to support the cost of representation at the public inquiry. The recent Parish Council newletter that has been circulated has more details about this.
There will be a Public Meeting in Ranton Village Hall on Wednesday 11th February at 8pm, this will be principally to set up an action group committee, a core of 15-20 people who can meet to pull the process together. Rodney Thomas will be in attedance to bring everyone up to speed with latest developments.
There will also be a need 'foot soldiers' to carry out the distribution of flyers etc.
Everyone's efforts are appreciated if we are to carry on our, to date, successful campaign.
At the Public Meeting at the Village Hall on 5th of January, Mr Cash revealed that because the planning application had not been determined within 2 months of submission, Driveme have excercised their right to request the matter is settled by public enquiry.
This means that the issue will no longer be decided by Stafford Borough Council, it will be decided by an independent inspector at the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol
The inquiry date has not yet been fixed, however it is thought that it will be around mid 2009
After a site visit today to various locations on and around the Driveme site the planning application was refused by the planning committee at the Council offices, however three Councilors subsequently recommended that the decision be taken to a full Council meeting.
The next full Council meeting is on February 3rd 2009, Driveme have appealed the original refusal and notice to stop activities so they will be operating until at least this time.
The Stafford Borough Council Development Control Committee will be visiting the Driveme site on Saturday 6th of December. They will leave the council offices in Stafford at 10am to travel to the site.
People are encouraged to visit the site at the same time to walk round with the committee, and then to travel back to Stafford for the meeting in the Craddock Rooms at the council offices for 11:45
At the meeting on the 26th of November the Development Control Committee decided that a site visit was needed before any decision can be made. No news on when this will be yet.
As the news is that SBC are on the verge of recommending that the current Driveme.Net application is approved, if you have any views on this you are encouraged to write another letter to the council, even if you have already written one.
There is also a further demonstration planned to start at 08:30 this Saturday (22/11) around the Seighford site (more details to follow)
BBC Midlands today are planning a feature on the situation and require people to talk to camera to give their opinion, they can do this at the Driveme site entrance on Wednesday 17/11 between 09:00 - 09:30 (more details will be posted when known) email admin@ranton.info for more up to date information.
The Staffordshire Newsletter has published an article this week saying that Stafford Borough Council officers are recommending that the application is approved.
Driveme.net have resubmitted an application for the Seighford site, more details will be posted when available. The plans are due to be discussed at this evenings (19/09/08) Parish Council meeting.
The new application reference number is 08/10971/FUL and the current target date for consultation is 07/10/2008
The enforcement notice for Driveme to stop trading has been issued by the council, it allows the firm to still operate for another 6 months to allow existing bookings to be honoured
At the meeting one of the councillors stated that Driveme were due to submit a revised application during August.
The meeting on the 16th of July to discuss the enforcement of the cease notice for Driveme has been moved back to the 23rd of July. This is because of strike action in the council on the 16th.
It appears as though Driveme have withdrawn their planning application prior to the planning hearing on the 25th. This is probably due to the speculation that it was due to be turned down and possibly to allow themseleves some time to come up with an alternative strategy.
There is a further planning hearing on the 16th of July for the council to decide whether Driveme should cease all activity and remove all facilities from the site.
A date of Wednesday 25th of June has been set for the Driveme planning application hearing.
There is also some speculation in the Newsletter this week that the application is due to be turned down by planners, but it must be stressed that this is not an official position, and nothing will be known until after the meeting.
The Staffordshire Newsletter has published an article this week saying that Stafford Borough Council officers are recommending that the application is approved.