SATNAM – the developer who wants to build hundreds of homes at Peel Hall, Warrington – is to appeal against the most recent refusal of planning permission.
Coincidentally, the appeal has arrived at the same time as publications of the borough council’s local plan which states that the site is “ suitable, available and achievable.”
Warrington North MP Helen Jones said: “Sadly, I believe these comments will weaken the council’s position at the appeal and any arguments they might put opposing any future applications.”
Ms Jones has issued a “call to arms” to residents to leave local councillors and council officers in no doubt about the strength of local opinion against development at Peel Hall.
The MP was joined at the first public consultation on the Local Plan by local councillors and protesters against the development of the site.
But none of the displays at the event at Winwick showed the proposals for Peel Hall which are contained in the council’s documents.
Ms Jones said: “I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that Peel Hall did not feature in the Winwick consultation despite this development being a big concern for local people
“I have supported local people in their opposition to development on this site for years, as have local Labour borough and parish councillors and Warrington North Labour Party.
“I call on residents to make their views known to both the council leadership and council officers.
“They should already know that overwhelmingly people in the area oppose development at Peel Hall, after all they have received petitions with thousands of signatures in the past. Sadly, it would seem they need to know yet again that the public are saying no to these proposals.
“ We have fought off development in the past but we knew that future battles would come along. Now we have to act again. Despite their words in the Local Plan I hope the council will continue to defend local people against the developers as they have done in the past.”
A previous demonstration against Peel Hall housing
14 Comments
As Helen knows full well, everything is weighted in favour of the developer and this appeal was always going to happen. So was this the reason for why she stayed away from the public planning meeting a t the Pyramid? Because the public might have asked her awkward questions about the likelihood of appeal? I guess we shall never know. We’ll just have to see if she turns up to the inevitable appeal meeting
If the council had any real intention of ‘defending people against developers’ the words “suitable, available and achievable.” would not have appeared in the draft proposals of the new local development plan.
The only way to stop development on Peel Hall – and any other green land we have left in Warrington is to stop the ‘proposed local development plan’ from becoming the ‘accepted local development plan’.
People need to strongly object to the proposed LD plan as a whole. They need to object to the proposals to ‘expand’ the town – because once the aspirations to expand are accepted Peel Hall and most other green land will most certainly be lost.
A handful of council leaders and council officers cannot be allowed to bulldoze plans through which will completely destroy our town. Enough is enough! All councillors and council officers need to be reminded that they work for us and if they don’t they can easily be replaced.
THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE -GET THE DRAFT LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN SCRAPPED! – This has been achieved elsewhere!
Our two Labour MP’s should be joining forces to save our town from destruction, not just putting up piecemeal farces of a fight which will achieve nothing. They should FIGHT TO WIN – or look for alternative careers!
I think people should read the consultation documents more closely. The reason the development plan consultation doesn’t include Peel Hall is that it is in the evidence base (SHLAA) rather than the document that is being consulted on. The figure of 9000 homes on Green Belt wouldn’t be altered by Peel Hall as the site isn’t Green Belt and it never has been. Maybe next time, our MP will actually enter the consultation event rather than stand outside with a placard for a photo op and maybe get involved in the debate as her mandate as representative of Warrington North should require.
“Peel Hall [as the site] isn’t Green Belt and it never has been.”
You’re wrong there, it was Green Belt for a few years, Satnam challenged WBC over it and won.
An accurate representation of Helen. Anything that guarantees a photo op and she’ll be there like a shot. Anything that requires some imagination and determined hard work and she’ll side step it.
Whilst I think there is a lot more Helen Jones could do, I think it’s a bit unfair to continually ‘have a go’ at her for the things she does do.
The people I think, who are most in need of criticism are the Executive Board and Council officers who’s clamour for power, glory and profit is at the root of all the problems. Also, councillors who are actively trying to mislead people into thinking they have to accept a ridiculously high housing target and all of the other councillors elected to represent the people who seem to be just sitting around doing nothing whilst the town is destroyed.
There is mass opposition, to the proposed Local Development Plan from all areas. This is not the future we want for our town.
Do these ‘supposed to be, public servants’ not consider that out of the thousands of objectors there could not easily arise enough people to fill their shoes?
The growing criticism of Helen stems from more and more people questioning just what does she bring to the table as a constituency MP? Finger pointing, blustering, hectoring, for sure. But seemingly little else. A reasonable question is asked such as highlight one positive thing that she has done for the town for the past twenty years. And it results in people scratching their heads in bafflement. She is the archetypal one trick pony, press release only MP. She’s paid a significant salary and also gets to employ her husband on an enviable wage to many people too. And for some it’s finally starting to dawn that we as the general public who fund her, are drastically being short changed.
Look at the state of the town BILLYWIRES! If people were satisfied with it they wouldn’t be looking to Helen Jones for help in fighting their own councillors would they?
The state of the town?? What on earth are you going on about? Or am I to assume that you are simply a WBC hater and someone determined to continue talking the town down? And just to clarify. Did they go looking for Helen Jones? Or did she go looking for them for publicity? If she was so concerned about their plight why did she not attend the public planning meeting?
Are you BLIND?
There’s mass public protests being held all over the town – and you think things are going well do you?
Vital public services are continually being slashed whilst money is wasted on ridiculous projects like the ‘City of Culture’ bid. WBC couldn’t recognise ‘culture’ if it slapped them in the face!
Our heritage has largely been demolished and the little that remains is left to rot whilst multi-millions are spent erecting monstrous carbuncles like Pox Park. By the time the similarly pox-cladded cinema and glass slug council offices are erected we’ll have the ugliest town centre in Britain!
Whilst congestion and pollution are at an all-time high, WBC are planning to massively expand the town, making the problem worse and destroying the ‘green lungs’ of the town in the process!
If you think things are ‘going well’ BILLYWIRES you are deluded!
Well here we go again – we knew they’d be back gradually like the Rixton Clay Pits fiasco they have successfully weakened the defences by undermining the old Local Plan.
Scrapping the local plan will do nothing but strengthen their argument as it will be left in the hands of the government – is that Michael Gove the Environment Minister promising a “Green Brexit” for the farmers and country alainace?
What about the David Cameron former PM’s statement that “Councils must produce local plans for new homes in their area by 2017 – or the government will ensure, in consultation with local people, those plans are produced for them.” There has been plenty of warning.
More likely the Minister of Housing and Planning will sort it out for WBC if the Local Plan is trashed – may be it will be even more likely that Peel Hall will be built on – they will simply ride rough shod over the plans to achieve their objective.
As Fugtifino points out the land lost it’s Green Belt status decades ago by a cunning Satnam move – it should still be Green Belt not green fields as it is now and stronger action should have been taken on our behalf by the chiefs.
But we are were we are and we must keep fighting any which way we can. The local community has achieved a great deal of success against the Satnam proposals through many different technical arguments by knowledgeable people and protests by groups that are forming as one alliance – let’s hope that this continues.
Santnam’s half truths are being continuously exposed for what they are but unfortunately they are learning from this as they build their arguments – how often have we seen this before in Warrington?
The Government are not pushing Warrington to become a city it’s Terry O’Neill and Warrington Borough Council doing that.They are pushing for growth which means more jobs, which also means a growth in housing need, which have to be built somewhere.
We have an ever increasing population they have to work and live somewhere.
Local plans have certainly been thrown out but that would make things worse as it’s usually because the Council hasn’t allocated enough land for housing and the developers then have an even bigger say. A bit of realism is needed here.
GEOFF – I find it worrying that an active conservationist and one time councillor and mayor is not up to speed on planning law. I suspect most of the town’s councillors aren’t either – but they should be, otherwise they run the risk of misleading the public. (that of course does not include those who do so intentionally).
BLUE TED – I think Terry O’Neil is certainly pushing the ‘mass expansion’ plans together with a handful of both Labour and Lib Dem Councillors and the ‘regeneration’ officer Andy Farrell but I doubt most of the other councillors are really very much involved -but they should be!
They are not just pushing for growth – they are pushing for ‘mass expansion’. The houses they are planning to build are largely not of the type that are needed in Warrington. The ‘aspirational’ houses they are planning will be bought by people who will be travelling to work in other areas because Warrington does not provide enough well paid employment opportunities for people to own such homes.
The traffic congestion problems we already have are because high earners work outside Warrington whilst low earners travel in.
JONES THE LLOG – Local plans have been thrown out due to mass public opposition, which has been due, as in Warrington, to the public rejecting plans for unnecessary expansion. And it hasn’t made problems worse – the plans were scrapped and a local plan with lower housing targets was adopted.