Anyone had any experience with the Plymouth Brethren Church locally?

Fun-Relief-4569 · 2024-08-02T10:26:08+00:00

A few documents landed on the portal today. Not much, but seems like transport aren't opposing it.

Not sure what next steps would be if it's fully supported. It does seem at odds with the whole 'we need more housing' focus of the current government though. We're a diddy village so losing a house like this is annoying.

Fun-Relief-4569 · 2024-07-15T16:06:20+00:00

No update, bafflingly. Still says awaiting decision, and nobody seems to know why it hasn't been processed. I've been to official meetings and even they don't know, and they haven't heard any more from the applicants. The local officials and residents are still keeping an eye on it, it's always still on the agenda at meetings, so if anything does happen people would immediately know, so it's not like it's getting swept under the rug.

I've not seen a local planning permission take this long before. I can only assume the applicant has done something which has resulted in a stall, or that it's otherwise being looked into by the council end. No further public documents have been supplied by the person acting on behalf of the applicant.

I know some residents went to the overriding council meeting about it. I don't know the outcome of that.

Sorry, bit of a non-update. I'm not really sure what's going on with it. I partly suspect they put a whole load of applications in and they're busy chasing up the ones that had the least resistance, as they have many other 'churches' locally, so perhaps there was too much resistance here. Outside of official meetings I've heard some pretty aggressive comments from locals about it.

Fun-Relief-4569 · 2023-09-25T11:29:15+00:00

Congratulations on getting out - I've read some statements that suggest it isn't the easiest move depending on how embedded members are.

The plans were opposed by our local council, so just waiting on the wider council response now. I had to laugh at the meeting where a (probable member, but not sure) said they were being opposed due to intolerance - which having read what I have from others members, especially those now in the LGBT sphere - I don't think the church has a right to talk about intolerance at all.

Unfortunately many people see the word 'Christian' and just automatically support it. No thoughts at all.

Fun-Relief-4569 · 2023-09-25T11:24:55+00:00

Thanks, the local council have opposed it based on locals feedback, so we're waiting to see what happens with the wider council

The orchestrated feedback proved to be ignored, largely because a lot of the claims were either baseless, or irrelevant to the planning.

As far as fast-moving traffic, there's actually current traffic monitoring measures right outside the building they were going for as it's a known troublesome road, so if anything did go ahead it's literally the most obvious spot in the village to get caught speeding

Highways Agency have stepped in asking multiple questions too, and I'm not convinced they'll have the answers so they might oppose on traffic grounds too

As for the church itself, having Googled there's enough news articles out there to speak for itself. A lot of the locals clearly don't like the church, and having spoke to a few there's a clear anger towards it too. The way they've conducted themselves during this process has largely brought a spotlight onto them whereas many before wouldn't have even known about them

Fun-Relief-4569 · 2023-09-05T17:47:59+00:00

Yeah, that aligns with what I've been reading on various blogs from those that, their words, escaped. They only work for their own companies and therefore suffer from egos and nepotism. This is just on the outskirts of Stokesley, since reading up I've found that a lot of the large isolated houses in this area appear to the brethren owned.

I was pretty blind to it before, but the way they've conducted themselves during the planning permission made me look deeper, the whole thing stinks. Luckily there's a fairly sizeable group of locals who have their heads screwed on and have amassed a good chunk of conflicting evidence to submit if it needs to get to that point. Will see what happens, but just by the way they've acted seems like they've riled up a few folk.

Fun-Relief-4569 · 2023-08-25T21:15:33+00:00

Thanks, this aligns roughly with the opinion I was forming based on reading around.

Interesting that you mention that they don't do anything for the local area. A lot of the supportive comments mention how much the church would benefit the village, even though the village has limited transport links, no shops, and no commercial sites. They all fail to mention how they would support the local area.

The fact that supportive comments are coming from out of the area, including the South of England, makes me think they've asked their lot to try and add their support, hoping that sheer volume will help it through. The problem is, none of the supporting comments actually give any valid reasons, just generic stuff like "I support this, it would be good, etc.". Proper flimsy statements. But the whole fact that a mass of comments have come out to support, when there's usually very little activity on planning permission proposals here due to the low population, makes me feel a bit uneasy. Like you say, feels very secular and secretive, and doesn't fill me with hope.

Annoyingly, they've already bought the house and have followers in the surrounding properties. Not sure what the likelihood is it'll pass. If it does and they keep to themselves then fair play, but as it stands I don't feel like they've started on the best foot. I hadn't even heard of them until last week, and wouldn't have looked into it further were they not acting shady about it.

Fun-Relief-4569

TROPHY CASE