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How not to campaign… Billesley Lane NIMBYs against chip shop

Text of single page of A4 pushed through our door (in the side road about half a mile away) this morning…

Say Say No! Say No! 
Re: Planning Application 2010/03563/PA

Did you know that an application has been made to extend the Victoria Wines store at 124 Billesley Lane so that a Fish and Chip shop can be built? Some locations are suitable for this, but not a quiet residential area like ours.

Have you received a letter to inform you of this? We have not. If you have, then you are in a minority because to the best of our knowledge, only one resident on Westlands Road has received a letter to ask if they would like to object. It seems that other roads have not been leafleted properly either so cannot have their voice heard.

This is despite the fact that all the residents that we have spoken to have clearly said NO to this proposal in the past.

This is an UNFAIR attempt to avoid our democratic right to object to this going ahead:
• No signs have been put up on lampposts to inform us so that we may object and have our voice heard.
• A petition was brought round but most residents we spoke to thought the proposal had been rejected.
• Most houses in the local area have not been given letters to notify them of the application for planning permission, and so cannot object to this proposal. This is an attempt to make it appear that locals do not mind.
• The deadline to object to this is the 28th July 2010. They have deliberately not informed most residents AND done this when many are away on holiday. This is to try to reduce the number of objections registered. DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT. Say No! 

PLEASE make your voice heard and protect our neighbourhood. We can fight this but need to pull together as a community and need your help to do it.
 

It got my back up a bit:

• Nowhere on the flyer does it mention who “we” are.
• There are no objections to the plans raised except that “Some locations are suitable for this, but not a quiet residential area like ours.”
• There are no details of the plans.
• It’s written in breathless shock horror with conspiracy theories and not much knowledge of the planning process.

• It’s written in bloody comic sans.

Looking at the plans the proposed building work does look a bit big:

…but I think if you’re going to get so het up about stuff you might stand a better chance if your arguments were coherrant.