There are a number of issues which have arisen in the past few weeks; indeed things all seem to come along at once!

 

Thorn Cross

Residents of Appleton Thorn and the surrounding area are rightly outraged that the Ministry of Justice has decided to place male sex offenders at Thorn Cross before the end of 2018. What is even more galling, residents discovered this via a letter through their doors and there is seemingly no consultation or opportunity to raise concerns. This move by the government also seems to go against previous commitments not to incarcerate sex offenders at the prison.

Your councillors are working with the local MP and the Police & Crime Commissioner to fight this decision. We are also disappointed that we were given no prior indication of this decision. A meeting is currently being scheduled for the public and more information will be shared as soon as it is available.

 

Local Plan

Everybody is eagerly awaiting the draft Local Plan. After the public uproar over the Preferred Development Options, there was some optimism (perhaps misplaced) that the Borough Council would listen to the 4,500 responses that they have spent months processing and make some changes to the draft Local Plan. Unfortunately a couple of recent developments would suggest the Borough Council have not learnt anything from the PDO process.

First of all we discovered, only through some contacts in the property industry, that WBC has been consulting on the financial viability of their Local Plan. This consultation was tucked away on the Planning Policy team’s web page and the public or their elected representatives were not made aware of the process. So from a communication point of view, this is almost as bad as the timing of the PDO consultation from last year where the public were taken by surprise and found it difficult to access the relevant information. From a content point of view, there are apparently many issues with the assumptions used by WBC in testing that the infrastructure required will be affordable with the monies raised from the development. Given that infrastructure is THE main problem facing the town’s future development, this is worrying. I am questioning the Council’s Chief Executive on why this consultation has been conducted almost by stealth, I will let you know what he says.

The second recent piece of news which should get us gearing up for a fight on the draft Local Plan is some leaked information which suggests the Borough Council is asking central government for funding for a major link road from Junction 10 in Stretton across to Grappenhall. This sounds very like part of the notorious blue line from the PDO map and indeed resembles the historically planned roads known as the Wright’s Green distributor and the Howshoots Link. A figure has been suggested for this bid, which in turn suggests a route is known and that the Council knows how much land is opened up for development by building the road. The scale of the ‘Garden City Suburb’ and the risk to so much precious green space was one of the worst aspects of the PDO. It may be that this suburb becomes smaller, we will only know when the draft Local Plan is released, but if they’re bidding for a road the Council must have a pretty good idea of what that draft Plan will look like so we should prepare ourselves for its release in Autumn. Any thoughts that the PDO consultation responses would lead to a major delay now seem to be wrong. Any hopes that the PDO would be ripped up and started again also seem misplaced.

Many of the Parish Council’s across south Warrington are working together to challenge these plans and have had an experienced planning consultant helping to prepare our response over many months. We will do everything we can to challenge the draft Local Plan to protect our green spaces and our communities. I am hoping to meet planning policy officers in the near future to see what, if anything, they have by way of an update. Watch this space for more.

 

Bloor Homes

After a lot of campaigning and negotiation, the Bloor development in Appleton Thorn is proceeding but at a smaller scale than first planned and with some important concessions, including bungalows bonding the existing properties on Chapel Lane. Well done to all of the residents who gave so much time in winning these concessions and persuading the Borough Council that a little extra time to go back to the table with Bloor and make sure that it was the best achievable outcome for the village.

I welcome the news that the CARE group, which worked so tirelessly, has now handed over to a new residents group whose intention is to represent the village in dealings with Bloor through the construction phase. I look forward to attending their upcoming meeting and to working with them.

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