Herefordshire’s Construction Industry Lobby Group (HCILG)
In response to a phosphate run off problem in the county of Herefordshire the planning department has stopped processing planning applications in two thirds of the county.
Planners are reacting to a moratorium, issued by Natural England, to prevent development in Herefordshire until phosphate levels in the Lugg and Wye catchments are brought down to optimum levels.
But because the planning department has decided to stop processing all planning applications this is having disastrous consequence on jobs and businesses in Herefordshire. The future of the construction industry hangs in the balance if #LiftTheBan doesn’t happen.
The construction industry in Herefordshire is worth £1.2bn* per annum to the local economy.
Thousands of jobs and businesses in the county are being affected by the ban and whilst the industry faces economic ruin if the moratorium isn’t lifted immediately the construction industry and allied services are angry that they are being blamed for a problem that is not of their making. Furthermore, peoples development plans are put on hold whilst the planning department have been forced to do nothing until #LiftTheBan happens.
Here are real examples of what’s going on…
“We have a housing development being held up and all we want to do is amend floor levels, it’s nothing to do with phosphate run off, so we’re having to change our whole business model to keep trading as we can’t start the build.”
A Contractor Leominster.“I bought a plot in north Herefordshire and sold my current house to live in a caravan on site, but the Council isn’t discharging reserved matters conditions for drainage, but I am already discharging to the sewer as the Council said I could put the caravan on the site. I’m stuck and cant start my build.”
A young couple looking to self-build their own home.
There are hundreds if not thousands of similar planning application cases like this across the county. This is preventing builders, architects, planning consultants, estate agents, lawyers and land agents from processing projects on behalf of their clients.
Thomas Studio has joined the #LiftTheBan campaign to help lift the ban as soon as possible.
So how you can you help…
Together, the campaign is building a local construction industry Lobby Group. We know we can’t rely on the local council to save our industry. We need to take matters into our own hands – with a fighting fund to #LiftTheBan
This means money! – we need to hire halls and engage consultants, we need to pay for admin costs and we need to resource a QC to provide robust legal opinion, we need a hydrologist to investigate drainage science and we need an environmental consultant to provide workable solutions for the industry to adopt going forward.
£150 pays for a room hire
£250 pays for a team member to work on our behalf
£500 helps us print leaflets and distribute information
£1’000 will pay for a large rally to gather support
£5’000 will hire a consultant
£10’000 will resource QC opinion
£15’000 will design effective phosphate solutions
£20’000 will lodge an effective legal challenge
£35’000 will help us achieve our goal to #LiftTheBan
There is a GoFundMe page set up to help support the campaign. So give whatever you can to support the campaign – and help #LiftTheBan
Click here for the funding page
We are construction individuals, and now we are campaigners, and we ask you to join us, give what you can to the GoFundMe campaign, and share widely.
HCILG is the only lobby group in Herefordshire working to help improve the environment and support better land management in the county to get the construction industry moving forward and unlock the phosphate moratorium – to #LiftTheBan
Campaign funds will be used to fund:
• legal opinion to robustly challenge EU legislation
• hydrological scientific investigation into the Lugg & Wye catchments
• environmental investigation into phosphate run off management in construction
• resource volunteer time and expenses to help the campaign
FURTHER READING
(*) The Gross Value Added figure stated for year 2017 including all allied industries.