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Ryde Residents Urged To Attend Pennyfeathers Meeting

Pennyfeathers Development

Ryde residents are invited to a virtual meeting today (Thursday) concerning the Pennyfeathers development.

As previously reported, final details have recently been submitted - with one councillor calling it a 'clear overdevelopment' of Ryde.

The original planning application for Pennyfeathers was validated by the council in December 2014, gaining outline permission in September 2017 for a maximum of 904 homes, a new school and community centre, with final plans in the pipeline ever since.

Ryde Town Council is holding a virtual public meeting at 2pm to consult with residents about the plans. You can view the meeting via YouTube.

Cllr Michael Lilley and Mayor of Ryde is asking Islanders to sign a petition so he can send it to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, MP Bob Seeley, and IW Council.

The petition urgently to seeks a halt on all Ryde planning applications that have not received approval and can be viewed here.

Speaking today Cllr Lilley said:

“I have launched a petition out of frustration.   During COVID-19 and lockdown, the residents of Ryde and the Isle of Wight are being denied their participatory rights in law to fully engage with the planning process.   People are faced with a complete unknown of the future, lost loved ones, and living with the effects of COVID-19 for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, through this hardship, landowners and developers in Ryde have ploughed on with their plans to build on green field sites regardless of whether people need them or can afford them …which they cannot.  It is destroying future livelihoods such as the loss of a working farm and the well-being of the community. Ryde has a deficit of green-space and we cannot afford to lose any more green field sites. It is utter madness.”

Cllr Phil Jordan of Ryde Town Council added:

“Our infrastructure in Ryde is at breaking point. Highways reports have concluded that several junctions are at capacity already and there are no plans to address the impact of the huge growth of houses, people, and residents that these developments bring. No extra parking in the town, no solution for bypassing the town centre with vehicles and no strategy for improving traffic flows. It is a chaotic approach to a chaotic situation.  This cannot continue and our residents are telling us, enough is enough, please stop this uncontrollable mess.”

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