WHILE two more hurdles need to be cleared before residents can be certain about the future of Green Belt land earmarked for the giant Six56 logistics development at Grappenhall, local Lib Dems say any decision to approve it “would make a mockery of the planning system.”
Firstly Warrington Borough Council need to remove the Green Belt land as a designated site of employment in the Local Plan, while the adjourned Public Inquiry into Langtree’s planning application to develop the site still needs to be resolved.
Last December the two Local Plan Inspectors told Warrington Borough Council that it needed to remove the allocation of a large area of Green Belt land from its designation as a site for employment. The South East Warrington Employment area was not needed and should be deleted if it wanted its Plan to be ‘sound’, to use the planning jargon. The Council was not happy about this but went along with it. Several months later the Inspectors announced they were going to re-open the Local Plan Inquiry for one day in July to reconsider this recommendation.
Lymm Councillor Ian Marks said, “A few days ago we heard the outcome of this. Like others, Liberal Democrats are delighted that the Inspectors have not changed their recommendation after hearing more evidence. However we are not home and dry yet because there are two hurdles to overcome. Firstly the Labour Council must stick to its commitment to delete this land from allocation for employment by accepting the Inspectors’ finding. All it has said so far, is that it will announce its proposed timescale for adopting the Local Plan sometime in the autumn.”
He added: “The second hurdle is potentially more worrying. The Public Inquiry to consider the Six56 planning application by Langtree had to be adjourned until October because of a technical objection by English Nature over an issue to do with Manchester Mosses. Langtree is desperate to build a vast logistics site on this land and is pulling out all the stops to make this happen. Surely it is highly unlikely that permission will be granted based on a recommendation by a Planning Inquiry Inspector which would be in direct contradiction to the recommendation of the two Local Plan Inspectors. This would make a mockery of the planning system.”
Grappenhall and Appleton Thorn Councillor Mark Browne added, “Liberal Democrat Councillors have played an active role in opposing excessive developments right from the start. They have also taken an active part as members of the cross-party South Warrington Parish Councils’ Planning Group. This Group should be congratulated for the fight put up by its planning consultant and its barrister on behalf of residents. The Labour Council was silent but this Group supported by committed residents fought the battle to preserve the Green Belt against an ‘army’ of lawyers and consultants. We think that if less employment land is needed, surely there should be a reduction in excessive housing allocations too? I am sure the Group will not rest until the final outcome is known. If we are lucky, Langtree will now withdraw their planning application but I wouldn’t count on it because they have a lot at stake.”
Six56 distribution site “extremely unlikely” to go ahead, say Tories
