A group of residents at Winwick joined forces to formally respond to Warrington Borough Council’s updated local plan before the submission deadline of 5 pm on Monday 15th November.
They fear the Winwick parish looks set to possibly be one of the areas of Warrington most affected should the local plan go ahead with over 1300 new homes proposed on Waterworks Lane and if eventually allowed, Peel Hall, doubling the size of the village.
With residents concerns about the already excessively busy roads in the village, used daily as shortcuts by thousands of vehicles trying to reach the M6 or M62, a clear lack of primary school
places at Winwick Church of England school, an increase in pollution, possible damage to a historic civil war battlefield and no additional infrastructure such as shops or doctors mentioned in the plan, the team has designed and delivered over 1000 leaflets across the village to raise awareness.
In addition, a ‘Local plan impact upon Winwick’ web page has been set up to allow anyone to easily find all of the information about the proposals specifically covering the village.
Visitors can see all of the local plan documents specific to the village, view the possible development sites and find links to the Winwick & Hermitage Green and Save Peel Hall Facebook pages.
And now with just one week to go before consultation ends the campaign team has published their formal response to the plan and is encouraging anyone from Warrington, whether they live within the parish or not to support it by adding their name to the collective response.
Visitors to the page can leave their name and address (securely stored) along with the names of up to 4 other people in their household and these will be added to the response which will be sent to Warrington Borough Council.
At the same time the page encourages anyone to make use of the terminology and content of the document as they see fit for their own private response to the local plan for Winwick or any area of Warrington where it can be of use.
Stuart Mann, a Winwick resident of 34 years and a member of the campaign team said: “The updated local plan could have a devastating effect upon the parish of Winwick and surrounding areas. At the last census, the total number of homes within the boundaries was about 1100 so adding another 1300 will cause terrible problems for our local roads, primary school places and massively increase pollution.
“After spending a great deal of time reading the hundreds of pages that make up the local plan, holding surgeries in the local leisure centre to raise awareness and visiting the sessions at the Halliwell Jones stadium our group is keen to highlight what we believe are fundamental flaws, errors and absences contained within it in respect of the Winwick parish proposals.
“We also want to help any Warrington resident try and understand better the exceptionally complex and often confusing nature of the local plan documents and feedback process which can be very discouraging to many who may not have the time, access or confidence to respond to something that could fundamentally change the town where they and more importantly their children live for decades to come.
Stuart added: “Please support the campaign by visiting our web page and adding your name to our response.”
A link to the Local Plan Campaign page can be found on the ‘Winwick & Hermitage Green’ Facebook group and a direct link can be seen below.
https://winwicklocalplan.wordpress.com/
Local residents Emma Lavender and Andy Griffiths.
