PRESS RELEASE For immediate release 2nd October 2012

Put Jobs First Time to End House-building on Employment Land in Taunton

Summary Independent Local Councillor, Mike Rigby, calls on Taunton Deane Borough Council to protect employment land from residential development, citing the need to maintain employment opportunities. Rigby points to concerns that Taunton is losing out on new jobs to Bridgwater and Wellington at a time when commuting is becoming ever more expensive. Taunton, Somerset 02/10/12 Mike Rigby is urging Taunton Deane to halt its policy of redeveloping industrial estates and other business premises for housing. Recent years have seen a swathe of former employment premises demolished to make way for housing in the County Town, with major sites such as the 62 acre Taunton Trading Estate, Taunton Cider Factory, land at the Railway Station and numerous smaller sites across the town. Sites like the old Malthouse and County Garage near the Cricket Ground well-known among them. Rigby said What we need right now are jobs. The County Town can hardly be said to be open for business when we see our employment space continually eroded by residential redevelopment. If we need more housing then we are going to have to look for other sites, including greenfield sites around the edge of the town. Successive administrations at Taunton Deane have attempted to see Taunton compete with major regional centres, like Bristol and Exeter. As things stand, we dont even compete with Bridgwater, let alone Bristol. Just look at the proactive view taken by Sedgemoor District Council in protecting and delivering employment land and attracting new businesses to Bridgwater. Clearly, the national economy is currently struggling but we need to be ready to capitalise on the recovery, when it comes, with a ready supply of occupiable business premises. Its no good pointing to undeveloped areas identified for employment uses, such as the Cattle Market site; the fact is they arent built, will be expensive and wont be available for some years. Taunton Deane would no doubt point to the development of Blackbrook as an example of additional employment space but this is exclusively office space and does not replace the type of business space lost, for example, at Taunton Trading Estate. Even Somerset County Council is at it, threatening to sell-off County Hall as a hall of residence for Somerset College. In Bishops Lydeard, we are now seeing an attempt by developer Wimpey to entirely sweep away all the employment elements of a mixed-use development at the railway station. This was a development reluctantly accepted by many local people on the grounds that it offered employment opportunities and boosted tourism. Now, with their planning permission in hand, the developer is attempting to do away with all those jobs, perhaps over 100, and replace them with 8 houses. This must stop if we are not to find ourselves lagging behind other towns and cities in our attempts to scramble out of recession. The concept of redeveloping brownfield sites ahead of greenfield was born out of the need to regenerate the large industrial sites abandoned with the shrinkage of UK manufacturing in the 1980s. But, according to Rigby, its now gone too far, with any and all commercial and industrial land now at risk of residential development due to the frequently higher land values. Its time to protect our factories, shops, pubs, warehouses and offices from the voracious appetite of housebuilders, who prey on any employment site, regardless of its continued viability, urged Rigby. There will always be some smaller sites where residential redevelopment will be appropriate given surrounding uses but the scale of loss in Taunton has gone well beyond what is sensible for the local economy.

While housing developments obviously have some positive impact on the local economy, providing employment during construction, this is short term and ends not long after the completion of the homes. And, remember, this is not an argument against new homes, its about protecting jobs and urging that that new homes are built elsewhere. With thousands of new homes being planned for Taunton over the next few years, we have to ask the question Where will all these people work? The answer, regrettably, is probably not in Taunton. As the price of fuel continues to soar, one thing is clear, the idea of lengthy work commutes will become increasingly unsustainable, economically and environmentally. The answer is to make sure that we have a supply of readily available employment premises in Taunton.

ABOUT MIKE RIGBY Mike is an independent Councillor from Bishops Lydeard looking to protect what makes our area special and shape development in the right direction. He became involved in how things are run because of his concerns that Taunton Deane Borough Council and Somerset County Council were heading in the wrong direction in so many areas including library closures, public forest sell-offs, tip closures and charges, poor highway maintenance, neglect of historic buildings and staggering naivety in the face of clever developers. As a qualified town planner, Chartered Environmentalist and Chartered Member of the Institution of Waste Management, he is well-placed to speak on these subjects and to point out where the Councils are going wrong. He is also a successful businessman currently heading climate consultancy, The Original Carbon Co. Contact: For more information, please contact Mike on Tel: 01823 430852 or 07800 858828 Email: mike@mikerigby.org Facebook : www.facebook.com/CouncillorRigby Twitter: www.Twitter.com/LydeardMike Web: www.mikerigby.org www.originalcarbon.com