WORRIED MP Helen Jones has called on Warrington Borough Council to make its position clear on the potential for development on open land at Peel Hall.
The Warrington North Labour MP (pictured) says she has heard “worrying reports” of continuing talks between council officers and prospective developers Satnam.
She said: “There are now very worrying reports that officers have met with the developers several times, starting 
under the Lib Dem administration. Since it has always been clear Labour policy not to build on this site why does it take several meetings to say ‘no’?
“Earlier cases have raised questions about the planning department at the council and it now appears they are out of control.
“Everyone knows that this first bid by Satnam is a Trojan horse. Once they get permission to build on the site, its protection is gone and they will come back for more. Their plan has always been for 1,000 houses. Does anyone seriously think they’ve given up on that?
“Warrington people cannot be bribed into supporting a totally unsuitable development by the provision of a few football pitches. Last time they attempted to build on this site local residents organised a protest march and I held a debate in Parliament. We won’t give up without a fight this time.”
Talks took place between officers and developers shortly before the May elections, although councillors from both the then Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition and Labour claim they knew nothing about them.
Both sides say they are opposed to development at Peel Hall.
Town Hall chiefs say it is not unusual for informal talks to take place between officers and potential developers when a planning application is being prepared – but campaigners on both sides have been quick to try and make capital out of the issue in the run-up to today’s Poulton North by-election.
Developers have had their eyes on the Peel Hall site for many years with talk of up to 2,000 homes. But previous attempts to win planning consent have failed.
It is understood the recent talks with officers have involved a couple of hundred houses and some football pitches.
Planners out of control says MP
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
4 Comments
Just another “worrying” report about the action of WBC Planning Department. Who will listen to any complaints to make this department more transparent? They just seem to do as they wish and are certainly, in my opinion, “out of control”. When are we going to get the investigation into the destruction of records in this department? It seems to have gone very quite on this front! Something needs to be done, and done quickly, to make this department more accountable to the electorate.
If you decide to build an extension on your house and want an idea of what is likely to be acceptable BEFORE you formally apply, you can discuss it with the planning department. That is what these developers are doing. Nothing more than that. Nothing underhanded, nothing furtive. Just normal procedure.
What is rather more interesting is that the day after the unions had a go at the Labour council, a Labour MP is doing the same. Can it be that all is not well within the Labour ranks?
It may well be normal practice but because of all the skeletons that have been flying out of cupboards over the past few years, anybody who is not suspicious that something underhand may be going on needs to read up. This is not a party political point because there’s not much talk from any party about taking the planning department in hand. In fact it seems quite the opposite – all parties are downplaying the very worrying behaviour of planners. In fact the only people challenging the planing department are the residents of this town as they have been in the case of Marton Close, Walton Hall and Sankey Valley Park. If it wasn’t for these individuals, Walton Hall would have been given away to a hotel developer, the residents of Marton Close driven out of their homes and large parts of Sankey Valley Park given over to a theme park. The spineless behaviour of councillors faced with this is astonishing and, as the first poster says, it’s all gone quiet about the inquiry into the destruction of planning records.
Grey-man is right. Should any of our elected representatives continue to allow the present group of planning officers to have unsupervised informal or formal talks with potential developers on any planning matters, on their heads be it. The borough presently has a group of planning officers and associates who are plainly not fit for purpose. Until this situation has been demonstrably remedied our local politicians must do what they were elected to do – face up to the facts and run the borough properly.