Bassetlaw council leader urges everyone to have their say on the district's future

In the next few weeks, the council will be asking residents, businesses and stakeholders for their views on the next stage of the draft Bassetlaw local plan, which deals with the delivery of new housing, development and jobs in our district over the next 15 years.
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The local plan sets out how we can meet the development requirements set by Government for housing growth, as well as plans for issues such as economic development, improvements to local roads and how we reduce our carbon footprint.

Sadly, most of the planning process is tightly controlled by Government policy and regulation made in a Parliament.

That’s why it is especially important that Bassetlaw’s plan is progressed because the Government, through its ‘planning for the future’ proposals, wants to further reform the planning system and take more planning powers away from councils and local people and give more power to developers.

Coun Simon Greaves, Bassetlaw District Council leaderCoun Simon Greaves, Bassetlaw District Council leader
Coun Simon Greaves, Bassetlaw District Council leader

I believe these proposals are truly shocking and would make matters worse for Bassetlaw.

That’s why we have joined other councils up and down the country in calling on Government to ditch their intended planning reforms.

The next stage of the Bassetlaw plan consultation will give local people a voice and it is essential that you take part when it is launched.

Last weekend, I was honoured to attend a vastly reduced and socially-distanced service to honour our fallen servicemen and women on Remembrance Sunday.

It is disappointing that Covid-19 has impacted such a significant event across the country and I hope that we can join together in 2021 to remember our heroes in a way that is more familiar and deserving of the sacrifice they made.

Finally, we must all continue to follow the latest advice to reduce the spread of Coronavirus.

The number of cases in Bassetlaw remain high and we must do all we can to protect the NHS and save lives.

A new walk-through local testing site is currently being built on Central Avenue car park in Worksop and will be operational from today (Friday).

It will be open between 8am and 8pm but before you attend, you must book an appointment by calling 119 or click here.

Coun Simon Greaves is the leader of Bassetlaw District Council.