Go-Ape
Jun 7th, 2010 by bobdootson
Go-Ape have submitted a planning application for Lever Park, it appears they are trying to say it’s a completion of the original course. since when was it a completion 2 years after the original application, if they get away with this what’s to stop them trying the same tactic 2 years plus down the line.
We will be reminding the Council and Go-Ape that we will not stand by and allow the rstrictions set out within the 1902 Act to be violated.
History shows that going to the LGO is a waste of time, so this time we will be prepared to go to Judicial Review.
We will not allow the 3 months to pass by before submitting our case, last time the planning department stated the the Act wasn’t a planning issue.
Ignorance won’t be allowed to go unchallenged next time, and all council officers will be made aware of the dodgy waters they will be stepping into.
The council must this time be prepared to go to the courts to take on the restrictions set out in the 1902 Liverpool Corporation Act.
It’s called ‘planning creep’. You get permission for something quite small scale, the keep going back to the planning department for a bit more, then more and more…
Hey presto! within a few years you’ve got permission for a much larger development that would never have got through as one big application.
Its also called “Foot in the door” tactics,and it stinks.
Where will it stop? At this rate, it could eventually lead to another Alton Towers on our doorstep!
We all know that Chorley Borough Council have ignored their own Constitution and will not accept the findings of the LGO who correctly identified maladministration in their handling of the Go-Ape application. After attending and tabling a question at a full meeting of the Council I received a most unsatisfactory answer from Councillor Goldsworthy but was not allowed to pursue this because the format of the meeting prevented this. The triumvirate of UU, Chorley Borough Council and Go-Ape make a mockery of the 1902 Liverpool Corporation Act and I for one shall continue to battle to prevent Lever Park being turned into anything other than what W H Lever wanted when he gifted the land to the town of Bolton for use as a public park. Bob Dootson is doing a fantastic job but he and the Friends of Lever Park need our support so we must all be prepared to stand up and be counted.
Completion, what completion.
If you had plans passed for an extension, would you be allowed to extend the extension 2 years later and say it was a completion of the original application.
I DON’T THINK SO!
If the course wasn’t completed, then it shouldn’t have been given a licence to operate.
Anyway maybe someone will notify the Council that the 1902 Liverpool Corporation Act cannot be over-ridden by the Town & Country planning Act.
And that any any restrictions in place would have to be ammended by another Parliamentary Bill.
And maybe the same people will notify the Council that to ignore the 1902 Act this time could lead to dodgy times.
No messing about with trivial things this time, lets see whether they will take on the Act.
We have learnt by our mistakes and believed that guilty meant guilty.
Apparently it doesn’t work that way!
So this time we will not waste 3 months of judicial time.
GoApe have completed the course they set out, any further than where they are now is an afront to local peoples wishes. Its existance on the banks of the lower is one thing to put up with but any more and it is over the limit and is most certain to be in breach of acts protecting the park. GoApe must not expand in any form. I fully support the Lever park group in its objections to any further expansion of GoApe.