Ok, been meaning to sit down and post this up for the last few days. I know I have been a bit quiet of late, but there has not been much to say and I have been busy... real life sometimes gets in the way!
I am also still feeling the shock and jubilation of seeing the mighty Rhinos sweep aside, yet again, Saints to win our fourth Super League Grand Final!
As many of you now know, the Newmarket Public Inquiry is to take place from Tuesday the 6th of December, till the 21st December at Wakefield Town Hall.
Now, this is a public inquiry, and as such members of the public can present themselves to be considered to be heard by the inquiry and also the public are free to attend and watch the hearings. Now, it is unlikely that the planning inspector will allow any individual to be heard by the inquiry unless they have previously commented upon the planning application and even then, has some very compelling reason to be heard just an individual alone. The only people that might be granted the opportunity to speak as individuals would be residents living very close to the development (so in this case, Newmarket Lane) but even then the inspector is likley to ask them to agree upon one person to speak on behalf of a group of residents.
As such, the supporters of the development (as I suspect the objectors will also be doing) will be presenting themselves to be heard as part of and representing distinct groups. So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that Residents FOR Newmarket and SWAG will be presenting themselves to be heard. We also expect quite a few other groups to be presenting themselves to support the development, but we won't give our opposition friends the advantage of finding out in advance shall we!
So, yes, you can turn up and ask to be heard, but to be honest unless you have something up your sleeve that you have been keeping secret from everyone that is a red-hot, sure fire winning argument then it is probably not worth it in all honesty. And before someone asks, no, getting lots of people to ask to speak is not going to show the strength of positive feeling to the planning inspector... it will probably just hack him off, so not a good idea!
However, turning up on the 6th December for the start of the inquiry, outside the town hall, is the way you can show your support for the development. TRB will post more details of this very soon.
You can go watch, it all in fact, if you are really interested, really bored or struggling with insomnia! I will be there at some key points but even I will not be sitting through the whole thing!
The rough schedule goes like this. The first week will be taken up by Yorkcourt and their representatives, this includes the club (James I expect) and the Stadium Trust (Sir Rodney) and of course lots of Yorkcourt's design team and their advocates. The first half of the second week will be taken up by Wakefield City Council and their advocates/team.
Then, the first and only statutory objector, Leeds City Council (boo, hiss!) will have the later part of the second week to put foward their (very weak
) arguments.
Then after that, it is the real public bit and we have no idea how the inspector will structure this bit and when we will get to speak. We will find out more as the inquiry progresses, but equally if things go fast than expected (they ain't going to go slower, trust me!) then we might be on sooner and the inquiry might end before the 21st, we will see. When we are on, it might be nice to have lots of people in the gallery watching, but lets see what happens.
If you do go, just remember it a formal inquiry and while public, it is not a public meeting... if you ain't on the list, you watch and keep your mouth shut!
So, things are going well, we are starting to put things together and put details into our arguments... I dread to think how long my speaking notes will be!
We remain very, very positive, but equally we suspect they probably think the same too... but of course we KNOW we have the better hand!
Current government policy is getting ever more on our side and against the objectors arguments, but we should not be complacent.
There will be things we will ask you to do and get involved with as we progress and think about them... so watch this space.
As one final big hurrah, the PI delay has brought yet more very positive developments and we heard some very positive news that we can't yet tell you about until it becomes public, which might be during the inquiry itself... but it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when it comes!
Ok, here we go, the roller coaster is in and it is almost time to climb on!!!!
