The Letter

25th April 2002

Your ref: MF/DP/A/OU/9/1/7

Dear Mr Firth,

re: Draft development plan for land at Portland Road

Thank you for your letter of 17th April last which I
have now had time to consider. I am afraid you do not
seem to have appraised the orginal points I made
concerning the nature of the development of this site,
which seem to be retained in your Council's thinking in
respect of future proposals for the Portland Road site.

I refer you to paragraph four of your letter. Whether
the area of Public Open Space gifted to any preferred
developer is 10% or 100%, I cannot stress to you enough
that the the loss of any Public Open Space is to be
deplored. Planning gain as outlined in your letter may
simply be replaced in time by a call for the remainder
(or part thereof) of the City Stadium to be developed
for private gain. Once the notion is conceeded that
exsisting Public Open Space can be subject to private
developments the issue is one of simply how much more.

I regret to say there is nothing in your letter that
reassures me that the City Stadium Public Open Space is
secure from encroaching private developments.

I look forward to learning more about how the Portland
Road site can be developed in ways which do not
sacrifice ever more important green space within this
expanding area of the city.

Yours faithfully,