The Frinton Residents’ Association
Sub-Committees
The membership team currently comprises of six Committee
members who meet whenever necessary to discuss membership issues such as:
membership requirements, fees, the membership application form, new initiatives
on how to ensure members are kept fully aware of developments and how to
increase the number of members of the Association. The recommendations of the membership team are then passed on to
the full Committee for further consideration and agreement on action to be
taken, if necessary.
If any resident would like to join the Committee, there are
vacancies. We are continually looking
for people with specific skills/knowledge of local issues which would assist in
ensuring the Association undertakes its role successfully.
At present, the Planning Team, comprises of the Group Chair and a fellow Committee member, together with two co-opted members. In order to try and keep some control over the constant building developments that affect Frinton, they meet once a week and consider a list of the planning applications which have been registered with the District Council that week. One of the group is then selected to visit the Town Council’s Office at the Triangle and look at the details of a specific application which appears to possibly have a detrimental effect on our lovely environment – an environment which we are fighting to maintain. Often residents who live near these planned developments will contact the Association in order to ascertain what help or guidance can be given to stop developments which will harm their neighbourhood. However, it should be noted that the team are not qualified to provide professional planning advice.
Our Planning Team check applications against the latest version of the Tendring District Local Planning Policies and having determined all the non-compliances, a team member then compiles a letter of objection which is checked by the Group Chair. This is sent from the Frinton Residents’ Association on behalf of local residents and is addressed to the Development Control Manager of TDC in the hope that he/she will read it and act upon it. On nearly 90% of occasions, the Development Control Manager will consider the points raised before making a decision to either approve or refuse the application. Alternatively, for the remaining percentage of cases, the Development Control Manager will consult with a Senior Councillor before putting the application before the Council’s Development Control Committee which is made up of approximately 18 local Councillors.
If Objectors wish to speak at this meeting, only one of them will be allowed to do so for a maximum of three minutes, before the Committee vote on their final decision.
Where applications are rejected, the applicant can, if they wish, make a formal Appeal to the Secretary of State who will appoint an Inspector. The Inspector will normally hold a meeting at the Council’s Office to review all relevant evidence, listen to comments from objectors if he/she so wishes, and then make a final decision.
Please contact us if you feel you would like to make a contribution to discussions on specific planning applications, or submit a request to join the Planning Team.
The Newsletter is published twice a year; once in the Spring
and once in the Autumn, and distributed approximately two weeks’ before the
Association holds its regular public meetings, ie an Annual General Meeting in
April and a Half-Yearly Meeting in October.
The costs of this publication are covered via sponsorship from local
businesses without whose support it would not be possible.
This support also enables the Association to include
articles supplied by other local organisations and charities free of charge, in
addition to information on Association matters and items of individual
interest.
If anyone wishes to include an article in our Newsletter,
they should contact the Newsletter Editor
who will explain what space is available.