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…