BBC radio 4’s “You and Yours” have done another item on estate management fees triggered by a listeners issue over an estate which was going to be adopted, but in the end wasn’t, leaving only a minority of the home owners footing the bill as their homes were built later. They were told the council had refused to adopt, although the reasons for this have not been revealed. In this fairly brief item HorNets’ views were asked about this and the Local Government Association statement (they declined to be interviewed). You can listen to the clip below – apologies for a minor break in the recording.
There wasn’t enough time to paint the full picture, especially in view of the need to explain the context for the wider public. So if you would like to comment with your own experiences of your council’s role, especially over the negotiating and subsequent monitoring of landscaping in 106 agreements, please do. To support our campaign further you could also send a copy to “You and Yours” at youandyours@bbc.co.uk
Thank you HorNets
We would like to thank Hornet’s working on this unfair charge on New Homes and the BBC’s Radio 4’s “you and yours” explained this extremely well.
When we purchased our house last year we knew we would be responsible for our open spaces through our Management Company, as the council no longer wanted to maintain the open sapces on new developments and agreed with the developer not to provide this service to save money; but weren’t told was that we would still have to pay our Parish Council Precept. Why do we have to pay the council for a service they do not provide?
My summary of my experience with my council.
They never signed of on the planning condition which stated a management plan needs to be put in place before development starts.
Even since this day, they have failed to enforce this despite being made aware.
They never checked to see whether our local park was built to an acceptable standard.
Apparently they don’t have the resources to do so
Even though it is my councils policy to adopt private roads and footpaths 12 years later, they still haven’t.
No scrutiny of whether a private company can manage a public open space to an acceptable standard.
No duty of care provided, despite the fact that they are meant to be working for the interest of residents.
They have the power to stop this scandal, but won’t yet they are meant to be working for the people of their town.
Dog fouling is such a problem but they won’t intervene as it is private land even though little children play in the park.
No reduction in council tax
They are fairly cozy with the developers because of section 106
Councillors are not qualified to sit on planning committee, none of the councillors want to know, stating they can’t do anything to help.
I have even sat down and had a meeting with the head of planning. Nothing positive has come from this meeting.
It seems to be an impossible task to make the council accountable for their part in this whole mess.
This sums up how I feel about our situation.