The Friends of Lever Park

Update for the members of “Friends of Lever Park”

It appears that Mr Paul Whittingham (Chorley Council) as used his discretion to allow the shutters to remain on the door of the Go-Ape reception cabin, even though planning permission is required for this type of security, and was never asked for, nor granted.

Mr Whittingham originally stated that planning permission was needed, and his enforcement officer Mr Steve Aldous  on the 15th of June stated that he had given the company 14 days to remove them or an enforcement notice would be served.

What has changed since the 15th June, to warrant  Mr Aldous’s e-mail to us being over-ruled.

These security shutters were not shown on the “Town & Country Plans” provided to the Council.

I think its time to reflect how trees were brought down without permission, and now 12 months down the line things are still being allowed to happen .

I’m looking for information about three official groups that influence the development of Lever Park:

• Rivington and Brinscall Advisory Group
• Rivington Heritage Trust
• Lever Park Management Committee

I’m trying to contact someone within each group with a view to understanding the role of each group and trying to influence the groups to ensure that the Friends of Lever Park has a voice any future decisions.

So if you know anything about these organisations can you either leave a comment under this article or email mail@leverpark.co.uk

Thanks.

I have been informed from other sources that UU have announced that the plans for a new car park and one-way system has been put on hold for at least two years. UU haven’t notified us directly as to this decision.

I have also been reliably informed that this info along with other comments was made to the “Rivington & Brinscall advisory group” and the “Heritage Trust”. These are the two groups that don’t disclose their minutes and tend to keep everything inhouse.

I might be wrong, so if I am ,will some-one disclose were we can obtain the minutes from these two organisations.

During our campaign we have sought the support of several prominant politicians and councillors,unfortunatly some councillors did very little and chose to sit on the fence .

In this weeks Chorley Guardian ,Councillor Pat Case in her support to residents of Heath Charnock regarding their outrage at the travellers camp site in Hut Lane, she states as follows ” My job is to protect the greenbelt land which is enshrined in laws which should never have been illegally breached”.

Excuse me , but isn’t Lever Park enshrined within the 1902 Liverpool Corporation Act, and yet she didn’t appear to be doing a great deal to protect its violation.

For several months the “Friends of Lever Park” have campained against breaching of planning permission, urinating in public by both G0-Ape staff and their customers. All these concerns where put before Chorley Council, who to their credit supported our concerns and had the breaches and other issues resolved, with just one or two breaches still awaiting Go-Apes action .

But to my amazement I have recieved a letter from Mr Martin Padley ( Head of Environment and Community for UU ) in which he states and I quote ” It is unfortunate and disappointing that you and your organisation continue to concentrate on a small number of negative events”.

The letter in it’s entirety is to be published on the web-site, so that one and all can judge for themselves how to interpret his comments.

What a pleasant surprise to see some-one eventually doing something about the Arboretum, it was beginning to look like a farmers field.

Lets hope they keep on top of it, and do something about the footpath while they are at it, when it rains its a bog.

Is it too much to ask for rubbish bins? Because it’s evident that people don’t take their rubbish home, even though UU say that people are educated to take their waste home.

One of the worst spots is the entrance by the side of fatties field, so lets start there and work our way around the park.

This latest addition really blends in with the Historic park, and who was it said to the Ombudsman that there was no change of use of the land below the installation in the trees?

I’ll give you a clue. It wasn’t the “Friends of Lever Park”.

In a press statement today, Jerome Mayhew of Go Ape said:

“Having taken into account National Trust for Scotland’s request that we try to avoid constructing additional buildings in the park, we have carefully explored the possibility of using a part of the existing Knowehead Lodge as our customer reception and equipment store. However, we have concluded that the amount of work required to adapt the building to incorporate our reception area would be too extensive and impractical. We have therefore decided, after much thought, not to go ahead with building a course in Pollok Park.

“We are obviously disappointed that this will prevent us from providing a healthy and exciting new recreational activity for Pollok Park and for Glasgow and would like to take this opportunity to thank Glasgow City Council and the many people in the local area who have openly supported us.”

Robert Booth added:

“Obviously we regret Go Ape’s decision not to proceed with their facility at Pollok Park. Our main objective was to secure an additional attraction for park users at no cost or financial risk to the Council. The loss of such an exciting venue for health and recreational activity within the park and of course the 2000 annual free places which would have been available to Glasgow groups young and old is therefore a major disappointment.

“Notwithstanding this we are delighted that the Company’s future plans continue to include Scotland with their 2nd site scheduled to open early next year and wish them well with their ongoing discussions with the National Trust for Scotland on the potential opening of their 3rd site in one of the Trust’s own locations.

“The public can be assured that the Council will continue with its commitment to improve its parks and open spaces by providing quality facilities everyone can enjoy and make use of. ”

Save Pollok Park tonight issued the following statement:

“We’re delighted with this outcome and we want to thank all our supporters for sticking with us over the last eighteen months. Our campaign was backed by thousands of Glasgow residents who wanted to keep Pollok Park’s North Wood as the haven of peace the Maxwell family envisaged when they gifted it to the citizens of Glasgow. It’s just a pity it’s taken so long to reach the obvious conclusion.”

“Throughout this saga the Council failed to consult its taxpayers properly or listen to protests. They did not address the legal and operational issues which we believe made the proposal a non-starter anyway. A great deal of public money and time has been wasted in futile posturing.”

“Go Ape was never part of a health agenda as the Council claimed but simply a crass attempt to cash in on a dear green place. The council has now lost two major park schemes to popular protest and they need to rethink the commercialisation of such open spaces or risk further defeats.”

“In March 2008 we characterised the council’s handling of the planning application as ‘slapdash and incompetent’ as they failed to consider key evidence on a number of planning issues. For instance they did not consult NTS which has the lead conservation role. ”

“In the last 12 months we have pointed out to council officers many other problems with the plan including the fact that this is Common Good land and cannot be leased without Court consent; precedent showed this approval was unlikely. The Chief Executive’s department failed to respond and we now call upon the appropriate council committee to investigate these failings which have cost the taxpayer and Go Ape dear.”

“We are also critical of the NTS. As conservator of the Park they failed in their duty to oppose the scheme vigorously when legal opinion obtained by Save Pollok Park clearly showed they had an obligation to do so. Had they made their position clear from the start the scheme would have been dead in the water.”

We have today been notified that our complaint has been handed over to another investigator, this is three months after the provisional view issued by original investigator.

For obvious reasons I can’t make a comment until the new investigator has completed her enquiries.

Friends of Lever Park will be aware of the ongoing situation at Pollack Park Glasgow. Glasgow C C seem to be behaving in a manner somewhat similar to our very own Chorley B C , in so much as they have a care to ignore lawful and legal constraints and continue with plans to allow GoApe to develope a site in an area, as equally protected as our own Lever Park. Whilst we can only standby and watch the area deteriorate as UU continue to turn a  blind eye to GoApe and the constant abuse of their planning permission, hopefully SPP will be watching and taking stock of what may befall them, should the colluders up there succeed as they have down here. We must therefore continue to expose all GoApes indiscretions as they occur, in order to inform SPP. They watch this site regularly

As a footnote, I cannot believe that a company as serious about providing enjoyment and ‘education’ about the woodland canopy, can allow some a###hole to excavate three 1ft dia x 2.5ft deep holes at the landing zone of a zip wire, and leave unattended till the day after. The fact that there was no accident is a stroke of good luck. I ask, who instructed the work to be carried out? Do they have a method statement in place or indeed a H&S Policy detailing risk assessment? I understood GoApe to be a professional outfit, I suggest they are no better than cowboy builders who continue to flaunt rules and regulations that other people have to abide by, and if not face prosecution, and finally,  for Gods sake, leave re-building of the stone wall to professionals, your attempts at repair only make it unstable and therefore more dangerous.