It has been too long since I last posted on my blog but tonight the Chorley Council Development Control Committee agreed to REFUSE planning permission for 60 houses off Charter Lane in Charnock Richard.

It has been a long journey with many meetings, public consultations, a withdrawn planning application which was amended then presented tonight. We now need to be prepared for either an appeal, or another planning application.

Many thanks to all members of the committee who spoke in favour of the officer recommendation and voted unanimously against the application.

Below are my typed words to the Development Control Committee tonight which are pared back considering the officer recommendation to refuse and the prospect of an appeal, or another application, as always I deviate and ad lib a bit on the night (which the Charnock Panto team will be all too familiar with).

Chorley Council planning officers are thorough and professional, they assess each planning application on its own merits, when applicants abide by planning policy their planning applications are recommended for approval and this happens in the majority of cases.

However when an application does not abide by planning policy, as in this instance, the planning officers, quite rightly, recommend the application is refused.

As a resident of Charnock Richard, the parent of a child who attends the School and heavily involved in the Pre-School and the Old School I know, at first hand, the problems experienced on Charter Lane. Put simply: neither Charter Lane (nor Charnock Richard as a whole) has the infrastructure to cope with new houses on the scale proposed, over 3km from the nearest (oversubscribed) GP surgery and the bus frequency is now one about every 2 hours (starting at 8am and finishing at 6pm) Monday to Saturday are just two things that contribute to the fact that this is not a sustainable site for development.

Once again I find myself at odds with the LCC Highways professionals. Traffic congestion on Charter Lane has increased significantly over the last few years, mainly from the (oversubscribed) school run and the increasingly successful football club. I cannot believe that further increasing traffic volumes along Charter Lane and therefore increasing use of the 'T' junctions at both ends of it, both of which have a dangerous acute-angle making them difficult to exit, is considered safe, or at least worthy of risking it, by LCC highways.

Neither can I envisage how, realistically, a functional 2 metre wide footway can be achieved, on the West side of Charter Lane for its full length, without narrowing the road and removing a significant amount of the existing mature hedgerow and trees.

Planning applications should conform to the development plan for the area which, in the case of Charnock Richard, is small scale and appropriate infill and this application is neither. However relative to the 13,881 houses built by Taylor Wimpey, in their 2016 financial year, 60 houses could be considered small scale, but in the settlement area of Charnock Richard, where there are approximately 450 homes, 60 additional houses is certainly not small scale.

The Taylor Wimpey agent will, misguidedly, reason that this development is needed and in doing so might suggest that the reason for refusal is based on a minor policy issue. However policies are set to define the boundaries of what is and, in this instance, what is not acceptable, this application is outside of the boundaries set by policy and must be refused, in line with the thorough and professional planning officer’s recommendation.

From my Chisnall Planning Blog - Chorley Lane

I have a Blog named Chisnall Planning and this is from that post. My opinion is that the alterations are inappropriate and will seriously affect the amenity of the neighbours who have been extremey patient so far, I will be opposing this application just as I opposed the original application. Increasing the ridge height of a bungalow, to add rooms above the ground floor, surely means it is no longer a bungalow. Moving a drain from where it is needed because it is difficult to install is not a good reason.

Alterations to previously approved house types J and D on plots 1, 3 and 4 (originally approved under 13/00600/FUL), to add an integral garage with room above to the side of plot 1 and to increase the ridge height and add roof lights to the semi-detached bungalows on plots 3 and 4 (to allow creation of a room in the roof space). Also, to amend the line of the French drain in the rear gardens of these properties to avoid the tree line on the western boundary. 

Land 60M North To The Rear Of 34-42 And Including 42 Chorley Lane Charnock Richard

Ref. No: 16/01001/FUL | Received: Tue 25 Oct 2016 | Validated: Mon 07 Nov 2016 | Status: Awaiting decision

Chorley and South Ribble A&E

The situation at Chorley A&E, which has been closed since 18 April is not getting any better, in fact it is getting worse as yesterday the NHS Trust at the hospital stated the Hospital would remain as an urgent care facility until April 2017. I find this unacceptable and have written the following to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health and also to Simon Stevens the Chief Executive Officer of NHS England.

The Rt. Hon Jeremy Hunt MP                                                 

  Secretary of State for Health,

    Department of Health,

      Richmond House,

        79 Whitehall,

          London SW1A 2NS                                                                                3 August 2016

Re. Closure of Chorley and South Ribble Hospital Accident and Emergency Department

Dear Mr Hunt,

You may be aware that Chorley and South Ribble Hospital Accident and Emergency Department was closed on 18 April this year and downgraded to an urgent care centre available from 8am to 8pm daily. The reason for the closure was due to a shortage of middle grade doctors and the inability, of the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to staff the rotas resulting in an unacceptable risk to patient safety.

In April the people of Chorley and South Ribble were assured the measures were temporary and that the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust would do everything possible to secure the staff needed to reinstate the emergency department service at the hospital.

The local System Resilience Group has been reviewing the staffing position weekly and have today, 3 August, decided that it has no option but to maintain the current urgent care service and this situation will be reviewed again in April 2017, meaning there will continue to be no A&E service at the hospital for at least another eight months.

It was stated, in April, by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust that their short term solution was to continue efforts to fill posts substantively and to attract agency doctors to fill the gaps, this has not happened in the four months since April despite the trust breaching any agency rate cap for emergency department doctors.

We are astounded and hugely disappointed by the news today, that the A&E is likely to remain closed until no earlier than April 2017, and cannot accept that more isn’t being done to reinstate the service.

The temporary closure of the Chorley and South Ribble Hospital A&E is becoming long term rather than temporary and we are gravely concerned over the current situation, the impact this is having on people who would need to use the A&E service and the resultant increase in demand at neighbouring Hospitals providing an A&E service.

Our request is that you urgently intervene in the situation and provide help and direction to the board of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, in their efforts to recruit the doctors required to re-open the A&E department at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, as they are clearly struggling to attract the talent needed to run their hospital. We ask that you do this so that the A&E department at Chorley Hospital is re-opened, reinstating the valuable service to all those needing it.

Yours sincerely

Paul Leadbetter

Leader Conservative Group

Chorley Borough Council

Oh yes it is!

First of all I wish everyone all the best for 2015.

2014 ended, as has happened previously (2013 and 2012) with a planning application being submitted for houses on land in Charnock Richard, I’m almost certain this is done to try and catch people unaware, as they are busy and pre-occupied with Christmas.

Dog fouling continues to be an issue during the winter months, the Old School gardening will need to start again, before the weeds take over, and the School Panto will have happened.

Planning Application 14/01279/FULMAJ – Land off Southgates

A planning application has been submitted to build 18 houses, which are being described as affordable, on the land adjacent to Southgates. The access, to this new estate of 18 houses, is proposed to be off Chorley Lane.

Many people have contacted me opposing the proposal, for many valid reasons, however not everyone will be opposed to the proposed development and all reasons, for and against the development, need to be considered.

My stance is straightforward, as many of you already know, I am opposed to building in the Green Belt and this land is Green Belt.

Green Belt exists to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open, and the most important attribute of green belt is openness, any development especially of 18 houses will, in my opinion, have a significant impact on the openness of the Green Belt and needs to be challenged.

Dog Fouling

I know the majority of Dog Owners are responsible, but there remain a number of you who are not and do not clean up after your dog.

To those of you who don’t clear up after your dog and clearly don’t care about the place in which you live, will you please consider the welfare of other people?

Registered blind people are the only ones who are not required, by law, to clear up after their guide dogs, everyone else, able bodied or otherwise has, by law, to clean up. Claiming to not being aware that your dog has fouled is not acceptable, if you claim not to be aware then you are clearly not in control of your dog and that is another offence under law.

Dog waste can be put in any bin, but please avoid using the one on the Children’s play area.

There are enough bins in Charnock Richard in which dog waste can be put, after it has been picked up in a bag. I have already had extra and larger bins installed, but if you think there is a need for more in certain places then please contact me and I will try and have more bins installed.

Thank you to the vast majority who are responsible and clean up after your dog.

Remember bag it and bin it.

Old School Gardening

It’s just about 12 months ago since we began the tidy up of the front of the Old School and, through the continued effort of a few people, created a useful space and what is now known as the memorial garden.

Winter will soon be taken over by spring and weeds are better prepared than plants, as they start growing earlier.

I will be at the garden on some Saturday mornings doing general tidying, cutting the hedge, mowing the grass, weeding and, in April, planting one of the beds with the help of the Lower Burgh Meadow Conservation Group. Anyone can join in and don’t worry you can’t do anything wrong, if you are passing at any time and have a spare 5 or 10 minutes, walk in pull up a few weeds and help towards keeping this part of the village tidy.

I have included a picture as reminder of how it was before we started the work and therefore how it will become if we don’t keep on top of it.

Primary School Panto – Aladdin

I just want to say that the Panto has to be one of the best things that I have had the pleasure of being involved in. Its purpose is to raise funds for school but what it does is much more, as it brings the community together.

There are countless local people who give up their time and skills to make the Panto what it is and raise funds for school. All time is given voluntary and without question, the four shows are the result of a great team of people and thanks must go to Sarah Reeve Halton and Linda Jones for their direction and vision.

I know there are better pictures than this, many posted on Facebook, but this appeared in the Chorley Guardian for two weeks and was taken during the School Assembly, where Wishee Washee (Stephen Clipston), Aladdin (Emma Haslingden) and Widow Twankey (me), all of who are parents of children at the school and have never done anything like this before, entertained the children.

My contact details are:

Paul Leadbetter

Rose Cottage, Mill Lane, Charnock Richard

Telephone 07926 089450 – you can call be any time.

e-mail paul.leadbetter@chorley.gov.uk

Scarecrow Festival

Scarecrow Festival

The Scarecrow Festival Committee, wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year.

Money Raised

Several people have asked what happens to the money raised at the Scarecrow Festival, so here is an explanation.

The festival this year was, as most people know, organised by a new committee comprising, Paul and Chris Chadford, Lisa Woods, Sandra Ericson, Gerry Hallam, Gareth Jones and Paul Leadbetter with Steve and Barbara Lowe, offering their excellent support also.

The aim of the committee is to host a community event at which the organisations in the village can raise funds for their own causes.

Starting with no funds we were grateful of a £100 donation from Ann Bishop. The Church, School, Pre-School, Uniformed Groups, Friends of the Old School, Holidays for Kids and the Football Club donated £50 each, as start-up funds for the festival (£350). Other income came from a grant from Chorley Community Housing (£396.36), selling of advertising space in the programme (£650), and sales of the programme (£833.35 – not sure how that happened when they were £2 each!) making the total income £2,329.71. Expenditure totalled £1,023.21 covering public liability insurance, programme printing, advertising and trophies, leaving a surplus of £1,306.50.

The surplus from this year will be held in reserve, to ensure there are sufficient funds to run the event again next year, even if everything goes wrong and there is no income. If the amount of reserve rises to above that required to run the event for three years, then the surplus from that will be split equally between the Church, School, Pre-School, Uniformed Groups, Friends of the Old School, Holidays for Kids and the Football Club as the organisations who provided initial start-up funds.

What is important is to recognise that the committee exists to facilitate the event, allowing organisations to raise their own funds for their own charities and good causes. Money raised at the Scarecrow Festival will be included within the accounts of those organisations, not in the Scarecrow Festival accounts. Having talked with some of the organisations that were involved, it is thought total income over the weekend exceeded £8,000. The school, for example, have said that it was their most successful Scarecrow Festival, in terms of fundraising, for several years.

Best Scarecrow

Congratulations go to the Ronfell Family, of Lichen Close, with their “Up” Scarecrow which won the Best Scarecrow Competition, as voted for by the children as they walked around the village. Second place went to Willy Wonka by the Hutchinson Family of Cherry Tree Close and Bertie Basset by John and Sue Ashton of Sharratts Path came in third.

2015

The 2015 festival is on Saturday and Sunday 12 and 13 September, this may, or may not, extend to the Friday, plans are in their infancy. What is certain is that the 2015 Festival will build on the success of the festival in 2014 and hopefully the sun will shine again.

We do need any organisations who are going to be raising funds over the Scarecrow Festival weekend to attend meetings when they can, all the meetings are open to anyone and are held on the second Monday of each month at 7:30pm in the Dog and Partridge. The reason we want people to attend these meetings is to allow events to be promoted in the programme and ideally co-ordinated so as not to clash, for example this year there was an organ recital at the Church and a dog agility display at the Football Club, both taking place at the same time. If events were co-ordinated it could result in a natural tour of the village potentially allowing more people to see what we have to offer.

Most of all we need people to create and display Scarecrows.

I can be contacted by telephone (07926 089450) if anyone wants to talk about the Scarecrow Festival, e-mail to chair.scarecrow@gmail.com or follow us on twitter @scarethecrows or Facebook “Charnock Richard Scarecrow Festival Official”.

Paul Leadbetter

Camelot Planning Application Presentation

The following are the words from the presentation I gave earlier tonight on the application to build 420 houses on the Camelot Theme Park Site, Charnock Richard (allowed 5 minutes, I timed it at 4 minutes 58 seconds). The application had no recommendation from the planning officers and was refused by the Development Control Committee.

"Members of the committee...

Park Hall has a long and varied history, going back to 882AD. Its history, as a leisure venue began in 1933 in the ownership of George Few. Mr Few sold the Hall and surrounding ancient woodland to a young John Rigby in 1970 and it was Mr Rigby who initially developed Park Hall as a dining and entertainment venue and that broad use remains there today.

Mr Rigby also developed the surrounding area, by the large scale destruction of a huge portion of Kiln Wood, a significant area of ancient woodland, to create Arena North which in its day hosted many national and regional events. Arena North was later developed into Camelot Theme Park which opened its gates in 1982. It is this area along with the land, containing no built structures, surrounding the existing Park Hall Hotel that is the subject of this planning application.

Members will be aware of the Chorley Borough Local Plan and that, in that plan, Charnock Richard is identified for small scale development and limited infill within the village, this application is neither, small scale, infill, or in the village. Indeed this is development on a large scale and out of proportion to the existing villages of Heskin and Charnock Richard.

Members will also be aware that this development is a site within the green belt and in order to overcome the harm to the green belt very special circumstances have to exist, it is the role of the developer to demonstrate that very special circumstances do exist and that the development is required.

The developer’s application suggests that very special circumstances include: creation of construction jobs, increased numbers of people in the borough who will spend money in the borough; the provision of a new homes bonus and a commuted sum to improve the boroughs existing facilities. It goes on to state the development will provide improvement to existing services via the Community Infrastructure Levy and that the houses will be of a high quality. These are not very special circumstances as all of these happen for all developments so are merely circumstances of all development and certainly not very special circumstances unique to this application, that would override the Chorley Borough Local Plan conclusion (as accepted by the inspector) that this is one of the most unsustainable sites within that plan.

Without this development Chorley Borough has in excess of 7 years’ supply of approved, deliverable, housing and the plan provides sites that, as agreed by the inspector, fulfil the housing needs of the borough until 2026. The inspector agreed that this is one of the most unsustainable sites in the Chorley Local Plan. Even after considering proposals in the planning application, the site remains unsustainable.

If permitted, this development, which is one of the most unsustainable sites within the Local Plan, would surely bring to question the validity of the local planning process.

I trust the committee will refuse this planning application on the grounds that:

1.    There is significant harm to the openness of the green belt in that the proposed built structure is far greater in volume than that existing, especially as a large part of the site is presently open and unobstructed by any form of built development. The fact that the site is largely hidden from sight does not reduce the impact on the openness of the green belt.

2.    There is no need, Chorley already has in excess of 7 years supply of housing and a plan (accepted by the inspector) that delivers the boroughs housing requirements to 2026 meaning there is no requirement to release additional land for housing in the Borough at this time.

3.    The site is not sustainable, for many reasons including, but not limited to, health and social care, school places, convenience shopping, the need to access the site by car, which is the most unsustainable method of access, with at least an additional 3,600 car movements per day (one extra vehicle every 16 seconds of the waking day onto an unclassified road). The proposed highways modifications, including the suggestion that a cycle way be introduced by placing a hard covering over what is currently largely a public footpath, is at best naïve and certainly unsustainable.

In summary this development is the wrong development, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, it is unsustainable, is out of proportion to the existing villages of Heskin and Charnock Richard, adds nothing positive to the surrounding villages and is not accompanied by the very special circumstances that would permit development. A large proportion of the circumstances provided are those that exist in any development and are not special to this particular development.

As stated about 4 minutes ago Park Hall has a long and varied history. It was in 882AD that the remains of St Cuthbert were buried in Park Hall woods. If this planning application is granted then the remains of Chorley’s Local Plan may as well be buried under the footings of the first property.

Thank you"

People Getting Involved

As I write this the sun is shining and the garden is growing well; okay, so it’s the weeds that are growing particularly well and the slugs are eating the plants. We have a Blue Tit that has just fledged its chicks from the bird box close to our Garage whilst Frank and Roxanne are making the most of the sunshine with the support of Gill.

So what has been happening?

School Woodland Garden

It was great to see that the children at School are using the Woodland Garden. Seeing the garden in use is better than any words of thanks for what was a great effort on behalf of a few people, supported by several thousand pounds of grant funding. I am pleased that I could help as much as I did. It doesn’t seem that long since the Garden was officially reopened by the Mayor of Chorley and it is now in use.

Old School / Pre-School

The Mayor made another appearance in the village to officially open the new toilet facilities at Pre-School (it’s a glamorous job being a Mayor you know). The Pre-School children took great delight in meeting the Mayor on what was a sunny day.

A new group “Friends of Charnock Richard Old School”, in which I am pleased to be involved (as Chair but more importantly actively doing stuff), has been set up to work alongside the Building Trustees, who are working to completely renovate the Grade 2 listed building to create a Community Centre.

The “Friends of…” group will be holding events to improve the appearance of the building and raise much needed funds to help maintain the Old School and prevent it from deteriorating further. The first stage of this is the general tidy up and creation of a garden in front and to the side of the Old School House, this work has been taking place since the end of April.

Significant progress has been made with several local people providing their time and energy and local companies providing their products and services at no cost. This is a genuine example of local people coming together to improve the area in which they live, for the benefit of many. Thanks must go to all those who have involved themselves. The garden will need to be maintained so if you are walking by and see some weeds feel free to pop in and pull them out.

The pictures below are from the first day, I will post other pictures soon...

Fundraising activities hosted by the Friends of Charnock Richard Old School group will include Race Nights, Comedy Nights, Photography Competitions, Talent Contests and of course a presence at the Scarecrow Festival. Your support will be appreciated.

Scarecrow Festival

The 2014 Scarecrow Festival will be taking place on the weekend of 13 and 14 September and is being facilitated by a new committee (of which I am the Chair, thanks to people for putting their trust in me); this is another event also in which I am pleased to be involved, and hope it will receive the local support that is so essential to its success. The Scarecrow Festival enables those local groups who involve themselves in the weekend to raise much needed funds and is also a fun, family friendly event. Without Scarecrows the weekend would not work so well, so please take some time to make a Scarecrow display it for all to see and attract people into the village.

Planning

Planning applications continue to be the subject of many conversations and rightly so as they affect people and also the wider area, not just in the short term but over many generations, these discussions are not always about opposing planning applications as some development can be beneficial. The planning application at Pemberton House Farm was refused permission, by the Chorley Council Development Control Committee in May, as the proposed development, at over 300% larger than the property already there, was considered inappropriate in the Green Belt and significantly outside the Chorley Council policies for redevelopment in the Green Belt.

Camelot Theme Park Site

The date of the Development Control committee at which the proposed development of 420 houses and little else, on the Camelot Theme Park Site will be presented, has been delayed until August. This is a result of the many comments that have been made by concerned individuals and organisations such as the Environment Agency, Highways Agency, LCC Highways, United Utilities and the LCC School Planning and Re-organisation team. The delay demonstrates that comments are being taken seriously by both Chorley Council and the applicant, Story Homes. If you have comment to make and have not yet done so then there is still time.

An application to fell 17 Tree Preservation Order (TPO) protected trees on the Camelot Site had been submitted. Through many negotiations and discussions and my presentation at the Development Control Committee the final approval was to fell 8 trees, including Leylandii, and replace them with native species which will automatically be covered by the same TPO.

Golf Course

In April, Wigan Athletic held a small exhibition to show their initial plans for the Golf Course, where they are intending to develop a training ground for professional football players and a category 1 academy, which is receiving mixed comments amongst those people that I have talked with. The plans exhibited extend over a larger part of the site than I had initially imagined and include a large new building in what is Green Belt land.

It would be a great benefit, in my opinion, if some of the land, not included in the development, could be used by the wider community however, until there is a plan it is difficult to make any reasoned comment and as always I will keep people informed as and when I become aware of anything which, will probably be soon.

I will not mention it this time but I will include a final picture just as a reminder…