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LoPRA - What's It All About?
The Long Preston Residents Association (LoPRA) was born on Monday 31 August 2004 at a standing-room-only inaugural meeting in the village hall. Around seventy five per cent of those present joined on the spot, reflecting the acute concern felt within the village at the scale of commercial housing development to date - especially given the aim of speculative property developers to increase this on a massive scale on greenfield sites. Companies like Northern Heritage and its sister venture Exchange Developments, acting in concert with local landowners, have already applied for planning permission to roll back the present Long Preston building line. Fortunately, this was denied by the Yorkshire Dales National Park planning committee earlier this year - and again by an inspector who was appointed by the First Secretary of State to hold a public inquiry into the objections to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Local Plan. In February the Long Preston Parish Council, with the help of the Craven Housing Enabler, instigated a village wide survey of Housing Needs. In August 2004 the Craven Housing Enabler sent out the report of the survey which indicated a need for up to fifty houses in Long Preston. A planned meeting between the Craven Housing Enabler, a commercial property developer and a local landowner to discuss a so-called 'affordable' development on a Greenfield site, was cancelled after the Parish Council complained that it had not had a chance to discuss the report, and that serious doubts had been raised about the validity of the survey. It was the cumulative threat posed by these situations that gave rise to the formation of LoPRA. LoPRA is 100% supportive toward affordable housing for local people if genuine need can be established by research that conforms both to professional research guidelines and those laid down by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Since the inaugural meeting, membership has risen to over one hundred - and it is hoped this will increase to 150 early in the new year, accounting for a substantial proportion of Long Preston's residents. LoPRA will also lobby actively on other issues of key importance to the village: traffic speeds and noise on the A65; the extent of genuine need within the village for affordable housing (which the Association supports if the need can be accurately quantified); and backing for village facilities and activities. In this regard it will work closely with the Parish Council which has been offered a seat on the LoPRA management committee.
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