AN advisory group to be set up by Warrington Borough Council to consider the future of Walton Hall and Estate will not be given a pre-determined agenda, a council chief has pledged.
Its members will start with a blank sheet of paper and will be able to put forward any viable suggestions, according to Coun Alan Litton, (pictured) the council’s executive member for environment and transport.
But he told a special meeting of the council’s executive board that it was possible that some suggestions that had already been put forward as part of the original proposals – now dropped because of public disquiet and the withdrawal of the main potential investor, the Contessa hotel group – could still be considered.
It would be “stupid” for instance, not to include the Myerscough College proposals for a land-based training academy, or the golf academy proposals, in the consideration, he said.
The advisory group will include representatives of the Friends of Walton Estate, Walton Parish Council, resident representatives of the borough’s area boards, three councillors, council officers, a representative of local business, the Walton Lea Project, the Bridgewater Canal Trust and a member of the council’s executive board – probably Coun Litton.
Additional members could be co-opted by the advisory group.
The group will carry out an enhanced consultation exercise and agree terms of reference which are likely to include consideration of setting up a Community Land Trust as a way of managing the estate on an ongoing basis.
Coun Bob Barr, executive member for planning and regeneration, said the advisory group would be very much a working group.
He said: “We are all here to save Walton Hall and Estate for the people of Warrington and to stem the decline that has gone on for some years.”
Coun Terry O’Neill, leader of the Labour group on the borough council, who “called in” the ill-fated original plan for Walton Hall, said it was important that the advisory group start with a “blank sheet of paper” and it should be seen as open and transparent.
“I think the council’s reputation has been tarnished by this issue,” he said.
