Outcome of Grange Residents Meeting Tonight Thursday 9th October

There was a good turnout of about 40 residents at our open meeting this evening to discuss the plans for the construction of a new community centre on the Grange site. The proposals were welcomed by local residents. Local councillor Peter Curling and Rita Kiss from the Grange Residents Association took people through a detailed presentation of the plans for the site.

After all these years of campaigning to prevent the council selling off the whole site for housing there was a sense of relief atht we had saved the site and an appreciation of the victory we had secured for the whole community.

However there is still alot of work to be done. This includes meeting with the officers of the council to ensure that there is full community consultation on the design and future operation of the community centre. In addition local residents living close to the site are rightfully concerned that adequate conditions are applied to any planning permission that protect them, expecially during the construction of the centre from lorry traffic and construction noise and disturbance.

There are already parking issues in the area and we need to enlist the support of the council and Police to tackle these problems.

Overall the meeting was really positive and we are determined to all work together as a community to make the new centre a success.

I interviewed Councillor Peter Curling after the meeting and asked him how he felt the meeting had gone.

submitted by John on 09 Oct 2008 at 20:37