Planning battle looms over green belt storage area

THE Green Party has lodged objections to an appeal and a retrospective planning application in respect of Green Belt land at Cuerdley, Warrington.

They have written to Secretary of State Michael Gove objecting to an appeal lodged by William Smith concerning land next to White Moss Nursery and Garden Centre, South Lane, Cuerdley.

He has also made a retrospective planning application for the storage of containers and vehicles at the site.

Warrington and Halton Green Party environment spokesperson Stephanie Davies said: “We objected to the site usage last September when Geoff Settle, one of our Green Party activists, was alerted to the issues by a local resident.

“She was concerned that the applicant was extending his scrap metal business and parking up trailers in an area of greenbelt.

“There was a lot of local unrest and a number of people contacted me about the unlawful use. It is out of character for the local area, not easily accessible from the main road by articulated vehicles. In short, an inappropriate use of the site.”

Mr Settle knows the area well as he used to go running there.

He said “I went along to the site and saw mechanical diggers at work through a gap in the trees from vantage points in the adjacent garden centre. The photograph that I received showed unmistakable evidence of trailers, piles of aggregate and soil as well as piles of scrap metal.”

Mr Settle registered his objections on the Warrington Borough Council planning portal after reviewing the evidence along with a number of residents who did the same. Consequently, planning chiefs refused the application in September.

Two months later Mr Smith lodged an appeal against the council’s decision.

Lyndsay McAteer Warrington and Halton Green Party leader said: “We submitted our evidence on the day before the closing date of Monday April 4, raising seven objections.”
1. The site has been cleared of trailers and materials, but it now looks like an inland dockyard storage area for freight containers – not a suitable commercial activity for the greenbelt.
2. There are scores of green containers that have been brought on site since the refusal without planning permission, contrary to the enforcement conditions.
3. Our concern is about what is going to go into the containers, at what time of day or night and by whom.
4. The applicant’s architect Neil Pike states that the place is screened on all sides and yet Mr Settle could view areas of the site from inside the adjacent White Moss Garden Centre.
5. The applicant’s operation does nothing to the area, there are no special circumstances and it does not comprise sustainable or renewable development.
6. Visiting the garden centre by car needs careful manoeuvring and on a recent visit there were two vehicles parked up between the gates and the entrance which meant making a slow and careful exit. Just imagine if that was a long vehicle?
7. The road alongside the site is not the widest and vehicles approaching from Widnes might on occasions, when a trailer is entering, be unsighted as they pass under the nearby railway bridge towards the site. Mr Settle used to run along the narrow single pavement opposite and found it difficult when cars went by – let alone the articulated lorries the site will attract.