South West Extension

[testing times]

I too took the time to read through the planning application. What struck me is both the number and range of objectors which included some hefty organisations, the views of which you would have thought would have carried more weight. Instead all such contributions seem to have been casually brushed aside which must have left them all wondering why they bothered.

There is obviously an obligation on the council's part to consult such organisations; once done, the box was ticked and the council got back to the main business of making sure this application went through.

[steveL]

There is obviously an obligation on the council's part to consult such organisations; once done, the box was ticked and the council got back to the main business of making sure this application went through.

I think you could say the same about pretty much any consultation exercise carried out by the council (or the hospital trust, come to think of it). The humdinger was the 'consultation' on joining a combined authority which, if I remember rightly, had a response rate of 0.00025% and yet was used to claim that the move had the 'overwhelming support' of the population.

[steveL]

If anyone, like me, frequently has to do the Middlesbrough run at 8 am and the return trip at 5 then you will know just what a nightmare the Wolviston 'inter-change' can be. You can say the same, to a lesser extent, for the Hart turn-off from the A19 at 5pm and the traffic lights at Hart Lane/Serpentine Road.

There is no demand from within Hartlepool for these houses. They will end up being occupied by commuters to Teesside City and exasperate the traffic problems to the A19 even further each morning. They will do their shopping in Middlesbrough/Teesside Park and probably their grocery shopping at the large Tesco on the A177.

God help anyone who finds themselves needing urgent hospital treatment at rush hour times. Perhaps the time is fast approaching when we should be thinking of using 106 money to buy the town its own helicopter ambulance.

The demand for housing in Hartlepool is for affordable and rented property for a new generation locked out of the mortgage market because of the low wage economy that exists in Hartlepool.

This is the sort of thing you would expect a Labour councillor to be saying. Unfortunately, we don't have any.