Leaflet sparks Green Belt development fears

FEARS that Green Belt land at Lymm is set to be developed has led to local councillors being inundated with phone calls and emails from concerned residents who have been sent a misleading document claiming major developments, including a supermarket are set to take place in the village.
The circular states that developers are planning to build on all Green Belt land between Lymm and Oughtrington with proposals for a major supermarket on Rushgreen Road – currently Rushgreen Petrol Station.
But local councillors Sheila Woodyatt and Ian Marks have moved quickly to allay fears.
Cllr Woodyatt (pictured left) said a large number of residents had received a leaflet stating that Green Belt land was under imminent threat.
“Unfortunately it contains a certain amount of misinformation. I am sure the person who sent it out had the best of intentions but unfortunately it is complete nonsense and has caused a lot of unneccesary concern.”
She explained that the Coalition Government had made certain changes to the planning system, meaning councils had to review and amend their local plans. She said Warrington had produced a very robust development plan which stressed their intention to protect and preserve the green belt.
An inspector from the Department of the Environment was currently holding an examination in public, similar to a public inquiry, into the proposals and objections to the development plan. This was standard practice.
“Warrington has prepared and submitted a very robust defence of our proposals to protect the green belt as have Lymm Parish Council and Oughtrington Community Association.
“Warrington has enough brown field site and sites with planning permission to cater for the housing need for the next twenty years so there is no need to build on green belt and our development plan makes that very clear. I am very closely involved with planning in Warrington and will continue to fight to protect the green belt as I have for many years.”
Cllr Marks (pictured right) added: “Lymm’s three Warrington Councillors are totally committed to preserving the Green Belt and have spoken out forcibly on many occasions.
“The proposals everyone is rightly concerned about are not planning applications but objections to Warrington’s proposed plan. The two developers who are objecting are Peel Holdings and Mr Mohammed Waheed. It is normal for developers to object to proposals to constrain building, so we should not be surprised at this.
“We believe there is quite enough land in Warrington for building on in the foreseeable future without the need to build more houses in Lymm.
“We have more than enough new houses in recent years!”
Cllr Marks added: “We think we have an excellent case and ought to be able to persuade the inspector that we are right. However Peel is a very powerful company and nothing can be left to chance.”
Lymm Parish Council supports the current draft of Warrington’s Local Development Framework and does not believe that calls to relax restrictions on development in the village are justified. It believes that that would be harmful to the character of the village and could not be supported by the existing infrastructure.
The developers’ argument that demand exists does not justify damaging the very character of the area that generates that demand. There are adequate opportunities for development elsewhere in the borough.

Mike Williamson on 30th September 2016 8:13 pm 8:13 pm

It seems that it’s always those with a home who are opposed to the building of more – funny that. It’s worth considering that every single home exists on land that was, at one time, free from development. Between 1997 and 2007 house prices all but tripled and we have a chronic shortage of homes following decades of woeful under supply. The UK has the oldest, smallest and most expensive housing stock in Europe. I wonder why that is? France has developers, lots of rented accommodation more second homes and yet don’t have the same problem. Oh yes, they build more than twice as many homes as us each year don’t they. The reality is that no community wants more development and of course existing homeowners want to preserve their views, services and, of course, their precious equity. People hanker to live somewhere exclusive? – That is somewhere that ‘excludes’. The problem is that we are all living longer and forming smaller (often single) households and we have a huge back log. Over five million on Council waiting lists nationally and Warrington requiring 477 extra affordable homes each year until 2027! (Though as few as possible in Lymm please – we must keep it as unaffordable as possible hey?!). By blocking and resisting all we are actually doing is storing up a bigger and bigger problem and saddling the next generation with higher and higher mortgages as they try to get a home. To hear Councillors and others say that other parts of the Borough should have the development I find to be astoundingly selfish and the way they twist it into some sort of fight to the death against the developer may whip up hostility to serve their own agenda, but if anything it’s a fight by those who have, against those who have not. Unfortunately it’s become a true example of ‘Titanic Syndrome’ – “I have a place in the Lifeboat and though I may feel sorry for those who don’t, I’ll walk on by and someone else can help”. Worth considering where such short-sightedness will lead to in the end though but of course, politicians only have to consider as far ahead as the next election don’t they?

5 Comments

tina on 5th June 2013 11:18 am 11:18 am

“An inspector from the Department of the Environment was currently holding an examination in public, similar to a public inquiry, into the proposals and objections to the development plan. This was standard practice.” – where is this public examination being held and who is acting on behalf of the Council?

Inky Pete on 5th June 2013 7:22 pm 7:22 pm

Could do with a decent sized supermarket handy for the village. Warrington currently has NO supermarket sized shops on the south side of the Ship Canal. Oh, and if the NIMBY’s hadn’t objected to a golf driving range on the same site then they wouldn’t now have their knickers in a twist over a possible supermarket.

fugtifino on 5th June 2013 11:43 pm 11:43 pm

NIMBYS!

Louise on 6th June 2013 8:13 am 8:13 am

Where has the information about this been until now?

Public meetings – where are they? – trying to find the document was like

finding a needle in a haystack and information about where and when meetings

were being held was not obvious anywhere.

Seems like raising awareness has sent some people into a panic – why?

The extracts on the leaflet are clearly taken from the Council’s own Local Plan Core

Strategy document – so how can it be misleading and “nonsense”?

If the information had been shared and communicated in a timely and transparent manner, we could all have raised issues and questions before now.

There should be more people with the courage to raise awareness and my family is glad to have been directed to this information.

Do we really live in a democracy or are we just allowed to ‘have a moan’ when

the decisions have already been made?

Lymm is a magnet for property developers and speculators – keeping vigilante

and raising awareness is the only thing that will help protect it.

Let’s hope the Councillors are correct and the Inspector doesn’t cave in to

the developers, as has happened so often in the past – we’ll just have to wait

and see!

- Mike Williamson on 30th September 2016 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
  
  It seems that it’s always those with a home who are opposed to the building of more – funny that. It’s worth considering that every single home exists on land that was, at one time, free from development. Between 1997 and 2007 house prices all but tripled and we have a chronic shortage of homes following decades of woeful under supply. The UK has the oldest, smallest and most expensive housing stock in Europe. I wonder why that is? France has developers, lots of rented accommodation more second homes and yet don’t have the same problem. Oh yes, they build more than twice as many homes as us each year don’t they. The reality is that no community wants more development and of course existing homeowners want to preserve their views, services and, of course, their precious equity. People hanker to live somewhere exclusive? – That is somewhere that ‘excludes’. The problem is that we are all living longer and forming smaller (often single) households and we have a huge back log. Over five million on Council waiting lists nationally and Warrington requiring 477 extra affordable homes each year until 2027! (Though as few as possible in Lymm please – we must keep it as unaffordable as possible hey?!). By blocking and resisting all we are actually doing is storing up a bigger and bigger problem and saddling the next generation with higher and higher mortgages as they try to get a home. To hear Councillors and others say that other parts of the Borough should have the development I find to be astoundingly selfish and the way they twist it into some sort of fight to the death against the developer may whip up hostility to serve their own agenda, but if anything it’s a fight by those who have, against those who have not. Unfortunately it’s become a true example of ‘Titanic Syndrome’ – “I have a place in the Lifeboat and though I may feel sorry for those who don’t, I’ll walk on by and someone else can help”. Worth considering where such short-sightedness will lead to in the end though but of course, politicians only have to consider as far ahead as the next election don’t they?