SAVE Peel Hall Campaigners have welcomed North Warrington’s new MP Charlotte Nichols and are hoping she will help them ‘galvanise’ residents for what they believe will be another ‘challenging’ New Year.
Members of the group held meetings with all party candidates prior to last Thursday’s vote.
“It was very reassuring to know that every candidate was wholeheartedly behind our campaign,” said local campaign co-ordinator Wendy Johnson-Taylor.
Charlotte told Peel Hall campaigners that it was ‘very clear’ that the Peel Hall site was ‘really valued’ by locals and she had noticed the strength of feeling during her walk-about, adding that she had seen campaign posters ‘everywhere’.
Charlotte Nichols is congratulated by her agent Russ Bowden
“It was encouraging to hear Charlotte say that she wants to be a ‘community MP’ and that the protection of Peel Hall would remain a priority,” said Wendy. “She supported the declassification of the site to ‘undeliverable’ and made a point about the concerning absence of infrastructure, the traffic issues we are currently facing, and that she would work ‘collaboratively’ to getting things done,” added Wendy.
“Charlotte said that she wanted to use her office to provide practical support” said campaigner Jon Parr. “She said that she would be willing to seek independent legal advice and to remain independent of the Council if necessary. She also made it clear that she understood the importance of air quality and the impact of the proposed development on traffic”.
“Charlotte said she is wholeheartedly behind our campaign”, added Wendy Johnson-Taylor. “We will be facing another testing year and we expect our new MP to be truly 200 per cent with us. We will be seeking a meeting with her as soon as possible to discuss our plans and the way forward to stop Satnam in its tracks. It’s imperative that she keeps the protection of Peel Hall firmly in her focus at all times.”
Jon added that he was “pleased” that Charlotte acknowledged the group’s interest to see Peel Hall taken out of the Local Plan.
The group said it is gearing itself up for an announcement from developer Satnam Millennium Ltd early in the new year and that members are preparing for yet another Public Inquiry.
“It’s important our new MP has grasped the enormity of saving our last natural, green space and what it means to us. Development on Peel Hall would spell disaster for the future stability for her constituency, but also for our town as a whole. Every application submitted by Satnam has proven to be unsustainable and poses absolute concern over the impact it would impose on current life-threatening pollution levels. We expect Charlotte, as she has promised, to target one of the biggest issues affecting her constituency and to hit the ground running from her first day in office. We are getting ready for our next round with Satnam in 2020, and boy, are we preparing for another massive fight! We’ve been successful for 30 years now and our residents are standing right with us. Our last MP Helen Jones took our fight to Parliament and Charlotte has pledged to do the same.” added Wendy.
She added: “All five candidates – Elizabeth Babade, David Crowther, Lyndsay McAteer and Wendy Maisey gave up time in a busy campaign to answer our questions and to pledge their support for Peel Hall. Their support was completely overwhelming. This really is an issue which transcends Party boundaries and unites people with total support across the board”.
Fellow campaigner Ste Dodd added: “I am looking forward to working with Charlotte and very pleased to see the commitment she has shown towards our campaign.”
1 Comment
It was great to get support and time for our Save Peel Hall campaign from all candidates. It was very much a candidate interview on one specific topic. I think that we got as much out of the process as they did. We were very pleased how much they knew about the campaign as well as the wider issues across Warrington with regards to the Draft Local Plan and Nature Conservation.