About Us
The group's objectives.
Skelmanthorpe Community Action Group (SCAG) was established at a public meeting
held on Wednesday 16 August 2006 at St Aidan's Parish Church, Radcliffe Street
Skelmanthorpe.
The group has two principal objectives:
1.
To fight any building development
proposals that would damage Skelmanthorpe's green spaces.
2.
To act as a voice for the village on
issues impacting on the quality of life within the village, in situations where
individuals acting alone might not be heard
Concerns about large scale building projects.
The impetus for founding SCAG came from Kirklees Councils consultation document
for the Local development Framework published in 2006. One of the options
contained in this document called for 14500 houses to be built in the
Skelmanthorpe area, together with an expansion of industrial units to create
further employment. Other options also called for significant expansion of the
village.
Given that Skelmanthorpe currently has less than 1800 households these proposals
caused widespread alarm, as they would, effectively, have resulted in the
construction of a new town based on Skelmanthorpe.
Over 200 local people gathered at St Aidan's Parish Church to discuss these
options with representatives of the Council planning department. The alarm at
the thinking behind the proposals resulted in the creation of SCAG as a vehicle
for campaigning against these and any future proposals that threatened the
future of the village.
SCAG leads a successful campaign against large-scale development.
SCAG successfully campaigned against the proposals and they were eventually
withdrawn. However, two years later a further set of options were put forward
that would also have resulted in the village being doubled or tripled in size.
SCAG organised another campaign of objections and these options were also
abandoned.
SCAG campaigns to improve the quality of life in our village.
SCAG has campaigned on a number of issues at the request of people in the
community:
·
A new school crossing on Commercial Road
near Barrowsteads. The Council has agreed to construct this crossing.
·
Village marker stones at the entrances to
the village. These are now in place.
·
A village notice board for use by
community groups. This is now installed in the Co-op car park.
·
Compliance with planning requirements by
building contractors, such as Bovis Homes.
·
Changes to dangerous junctions at Wood
Street and Station Road. These have now been carried out.
·
Action to reduce speeding in the village.
The council has now agreed to install traffic calming measures.
These are just some of the issues we have campaigned on successfully over the
past five years. There are other areas where we have not yet succeeded, but our
motto is "Never give up" and we will continue to press for change until we
succeed.
Committee membership.
Our committee is elected each year at the AGM and details of committee members
can be found on our contacts page.
Email enquiries: enquiries@skelmanthorpeaction.org.uk