My Amber Valley

Last Wednesday, Amber Valley Borough Council made a shocking decision to sell the Greenwich Recreation Ground to Morrisons supermarket, despite objections and protests from local residents.
At the AVBC meeting last Wednesday, local residents expressed their views, and after locals left the open session, AVBC decided to sell the site, despite objections from many councillors from Ripley Town Council.
Stuart Bradford is the leader of AVBC and said "We appreciate the strength of feeling of some about the plans for the superstore but we emphasise that the plans are still subject to the planning process, which will rigorously test the issues raised by concerned local residents such as the impact on the town centre."
RipIey Town Council is inviting local people to a public meeting on Tuesday 7th February 2012 at 7.00pm to set up a Neighbourhood Forum.   The meeting is expected to select a 'Steering Group' so that a Neighbourhood Plan can be established. The new Neighbourhood Plan will set out the vision for Ripley (and Heage and Ambergate), and new planning policies for the development and use of land.
The Town Council recently approved a three page report which sets out more details about how the process of developing a Neighbourhood Plan works. if you would like a copy of it, or are planning to come to the meeting, then please get in touch with the Town Clerk Linda McCormick on 01773 832211.

Greenwich is one of Ripley's most visible and accessible areas of green-belt land and is used by many local sports teams and residents. Ripley, like Heanor, have been slowly dying over the years and it's the fault of local councils that have allowed the likes of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons to dominate local shopping choices. As has the whole of the UK to be honest.
I’m going to call Linda McCormick right now and book my place for the public meeting on the 7th. I urge as many people as possible to attend and we might just be able to stop the Greenwich development.