Thanks to all members who attended the Trust Forum.
For those who could not attend, here are the key points from Tuesday’s forum.
All the members present voted in favour of the Trust continuing with appealing the Perdiswell planning application decision.
During the forum it was further affirmed by the Trust’s planning experts that the planning application was robust and had no sound reason to be refused. The process of the planning application was further asserted to explain the application should have been judged on planning matters only. The point that the application was refused on, relating to the size and scale of the development, will be the sole focus of the appeal, so no other elements of the planning application can drawn upon. The appeal process has a six month window, meaning it must be started with 6 months of 26th July 2017. It was explained that the appeal is to be heard by the Planning Inspectorate, an executive agency of the Department for Communities and Local Government, which is politically independent, meaning there will be no political influence possible on the appeal. Mark Taylor, who is representing the Trust in the appeal process, and is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, noted that he was fairly confident the appeal will go the Trust’s way. Trust Board member Gavin Warr also raised the question for the benefit of the audience as to whether an appeal can have an effect on another application to which the reply was that from a planning point of view no one application can have an effect on another.
The key points raised during the forum can give confidence to Trust members and supporters of the football club that Perdiswell is a realistic and achievable route to bring Worcester City back to Worcester.