DEAR Editor – On Monday I was at a fully-packed event for the city of Worcester hosted by Redeem Our Communities.
The aim was to make fruitful connections to bring about transformation through partnerships within communities in and around Worcester.
There were many high ranking officers and politicians there in support.
A comment made by former Worcester Mayor, Jabba Riaz, about integrating new residents to the city, and subsequent comments by others about the lack of community facilities, the growth in homelessness and and the shortage of affordable housing caused me to ponder on the effectiveness of Section 106 planning agreements, which now fail to provide the full infrastructure and resources needed to support our growing and increasingly diverse city.
And how many times do we read in these pages about our NHS Trust not being able to secure such contributions?
Our planning officers and councillors face unrelenting and irresistible pressure from central government to grant planning permission for housing development or face penalties. Why does this persist?
In other news: 25 per cent of Tory party funding comes from property developers (Financial Times, July 29). In other news: Tyson Fury donates entire purse to the homeless.
Timothy Parker
Worcester
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