The Planning Sub Committee
This limb of the Society meets monthly and has a core membership of seven members, although other Society members and members of the public attend on occasions.
The key work is the sifting of the Planning Applications for the area that are issued weekly. Comments are sent to the MHDC if any proposals impinge on heritage and historical matters.
In addition, larger and longer term projects - such as the Post Office site, the Library Forecourt and the future of the Community Hospital - are considered carefully. We do our best to take heed of members' views in order to give a good representation of what the Society as a whole is thinking. PLEASE LET US KNOW YOUR VIEWS. This is why there is a regular display of what is going on at the Society meetings.
Roger SuttonAs I look through the planning applications and around Malvern, it seems to me that most of the big houses, now owned by the Council, Malvern College and various other notable bodies, will have been divided into apartments or possibly offices. The trend seems to be for purpose-built office blocks, where modern technology can be planned in at the design stage rather than added by going through internal walls or under floorboards that have remained in place since Victorian times.
We have all seen the progress of in-filling, where once spacious, beautiful gardens, designed to enhance Victorian villas, have been divided to allow the intrusion of bungalows and modern houses or even an apartment block rivalling the original house in size. As more of these gardens are reduced to mere landscaped surrounds, the face of Malvern will change. The view from the Hills will no longer be trees with houses inserted but houses with a few trees. This is especially true as the mature trees come to the end of their life or are cut down for 'health and safety' reasons.
But which of us struggling to keep up an old property and maintain a large garden decently does not dream of selling land and buying a convenient smaller property with, perhaps, just a patio?
More accommodation is needed - either the conversion of older properties (and we need to retain these beautiful and unique buildings which give Malvern its character) or new build. In either case, it needs to be well-designed, ecologically sound, and possibly of three stories to keep the footprint small with more AFFORDABLE properties for first time buyers and the elderly.
We, in Malvern, are very fortunate to live in a beautiful area, the Hills and surrounding countryside are a delight but if we are to have greater density of buildings we must cherish our open spaces, parks and playing fields to ensure that future generations have space to enjoy and children can run free.
One of the projects that is on the 'wish list' of the Planning Sub Committee is to prepare a blueprint of Malvern in the future which will reflect the views of you, our members. We see that we have an advantage over the various agencies that administer the town in that [a] we are strictly non political and [b] are able to envision the ideal circumstances without too much preoccupation with mundane matters such as money. Some of the best urban developments such as Poundbury and Bournville have been based on an ideal rather than grim figures.
Katharine BarberEDITOR'S FOOTNOTE: Katharine's viewpoint feature is timely. Migration into country areas continues apace.
The CPRE claim that over 20 square miles of countryside is being lost to development each year and the movement is also affecting towns with attractive suburbs.
The latest figures show that 3,400 people moved into Worcestershire out of a total annual movement from town to country of 12,500. Towns like Malvern with large Victorian houses coupled with mature gardens in pleasant tree-lined streets are attractive to developers.
Good quality Victorian and Edwardian houses with fine craftsmanship are being lost forever. Although they are very good properties they are not quite good enough to be listed.
Faced with the reluctance of planners to allow green belt development it is hardly surprising that developers are knocking down good homes in order to build flats on the in-fill and make money. It's happening all over the country.