Who to write to

Just to mention that it is taking a very long time for letters, faxes and emails written to HBC to appear on UK Planning, which is where all planning applications are viewed. It is now a week since my neighbour wrote and a week since I handed in my first letter. Neither can be viewed on-line yet. This means that many letters delivered this way could arrive too late for people to see and and perhaps add their objections before the deadline.

Could I suggest that people add their objections directly on-line thru the Hastings Planning website. (It is listed under Battle Road or HS/FA/08/00378). It will then appear immediately as an objection. Please keep sending in objections. If Asda can swamp Planning with documentation so can we, even tho' we have less time to do it in.

I've asked Darren how he got his objection on there so quickly -

You can send your letter to Mr. Sampson by email. Email address is dccomments@hastings.gov.uk -

That way, it'll be on there within a day or two and it looks more formal than an online comment.

I'm editing my original post above to show this address. :-)

Perhaps people could send the same letter by email and send on-line. Emailed letters still need human intervention to get 'em on line. And many people are put off by the officialdom and formality of the language and process. So let's not have formal. Let's just object!

A letter from people in Strood Road received in the council offices on 10 June has only just appeared on the Planning Website - that is 9 days!! So where are all the objection letters? Are they sitting in someone's in-tray in Menzies Road or are people not writing? Please, please, cut and paste your letters into the website directly from your computer. That way your comments are there for anyone interested to see.

An Asda suit informed me at the last meeting that "it was nothing to do with you - you're not on the boundary". That may be so, (we are about 5 metres from the boundary), and for me the only positive side of Asda on this site might be that the development might scare away the foxes and my chickens would be a whole lot safer. BUT, the more I think about it the more I am incensed by their attitude, thinking that they can bribe councillors, ignore local policy and national policy, create traffic congestion, undermine local businesses etc etc etc. I am quite speechless! How dare they!!!

Greed.

Four members of the Walton family, who own Wal-Mart, who own Asda, are among the 30 richest people in the world. They are worth just over $19 billion each.

Incidentally, the two Aldi founders are even wealthier. They're at number 10 ($27 billion) and number 17 ($23 billion) on the billionaire list.

These people know how to bleed their suppliers dry for their own enrichment. Nice.

Here is a copy of an email I received from HBC. I was in contact with them because some of the documents on the UK Planning Website were incomplete (notably the Transport Assessment sections 1-5). I also asked them why it was taking so long for letters to appear on the UK Planning website. Reading this, I think it may be counter productive to copy letters into online comments, as it just increases the workload and with it the delays. If you want your comments to appear immediately, submit them online. Hope this helps.

Dear Gaby

If you do your online comment via UKPlanning then it will appear on the website the same day, at the same time we also receive an electronic copy via email the next day.

If you do it via our website or 'dccomments' then it has to be downloaded and then sent to UKPlanning, which can take a few days. At the moment we are experiencing staffing problems, today and tomorrow I have no DCAdmin staff in, so any comments submitted this way will take a bit longer than normal.

All comments submitted, regardless of which way they are sent/received will be seen by the relevant Planning Officer.

Also Southern Water has only 1 page and I have asked HBC to put the remaining pages on. Note what they say about "inadequate capacity"