The Friends of Lever Park

A message from the Blackrod and Horwich Environmental Action Group:

Pilkington Quarry 83299/09

This new application seeks to change the permitted quarrying operation from 2007 to 2042. We are still questioning why the quarry has been allowed to operate without active planning permission. We also question why you would need to extend the operational life of a quarry which has already extracted all the available stone. It would be beneficial if you would make your views about this application known to the council Objections lodged as a result of previous applications do not count, so make your views about this application known.

Please remember, one comment per person not one per household.

The official consultation ends Christmas day.

In addition, if you are able to form a local residents group, please contact me on either email

Link to council planning page

www.bheag.co.uk

BHEAG email BHEAG@hotmail.com

Click on the scanned images below.

Tags: LGO, local government ombudsman

Napoleon Bonaparte—Farewell to the old guard—1814

Tony Blair—To the Irish Parliament—1991

Winston Churchill—Blood, Sweat and Tears—1940

Bill Clinton—I haved sinned—1998

St Francis of Assisi—Sermon to the birds—1220

Now lets see how many of you can guess who made this speech in 2008.

“We are aware that some residents are frustrated with the Go-Ape project and  have met with them to discuss their concerns”. I would like to assure everyone that the Council takes delegated powers very seriously and we have complied with all rules, regulations and guidelines on this planning application.

Come to the meeting on the 10th Dec, to find out whether the Ombudsman considered they had complied with all the rules.

Go Ape have opened a forum on their website to discuss their proposal for the Itchen Valley. This interesting question and answer appeared a few days ago:

Q: The Friends of Lever park claim that you applied to cut down 3 trees, but you actually felled 21 with no felling license, before you were stopped by objections. Is this true? Have you applied to fell more? Have you applied for an extra zip wire there? Is this what we can expect at IVCP? A few questions, please answer them all. Thank-you

Submitted by J on
19 November 2009

A: You are correct, there were more trees cut down than we had planned at Lever Park.  This was a mistake, and not intentional and we can assure you that this mistake will not be made again. In the initial design for the course at Lever Park, we planned for a zip wire on site 4, however this would have meant further trees being felled so we did not proceed with this plan. As a result, we have been running with a solution of a down ladder. This has reduced course flow, and so results in more people on the ground and a long walk to the next site, which is less than satisfactory for us and for other park users. We have recently worked out a slightly different design to allow for the planned zip wire which will not require further felling. We can assure you that our application for Itchen Valley will remain as it is and there will be no further additions to the course.

Submitted by Go Ape on
23 November 2009

There will be a meeting for “friends of Lever Park” and their supporters on Thursday the 10th December 2009, it will be held at HORWICH CONSERVATIVE CLUB, Church Street Horwich, with an 8-00pm start.

Agenda: (i) Report on the Ombudsman’s final decision.

(ii) Report on complaint made to the Information Commissioners Office.

(iii) Outlining our intentions following the final decision by the LGO

(iv) A-O-B

It doesn’t pay to take your eye off the ball.

Remember Go-Ape notifying us that they would be submitting a planning application week commencing the 16th November.

It’s not that date we need to keep our eye on, it’s the validation date. It’s only after this date that the public etc need to be notified.

The validation process can take any amount of time, a typical example being last week Chorley Council took almost 5 weeks to validate a planning application for a wooden shed.

Going off that, it’s possible that the application may only be validated in mid December and guess what?

CORRECT, the 21 days for comment  could run into the xmas and new year period.

Not only would the public be tied up with xmas festivities, the local Councils are also unlikely to be having any meetings over that period.

Am I suspicious or am I suspicious?

Don’t forget that Go-Ape may be putting in a planning application week commencing 16th Nov/09.

Odds for day of notification:     Monday 7/1,    Tuesday 6/1,   Wednesday 5/1,   Thursday evens  and   Friday  1/5 on.

Friday will be favorite then the offices won’t be open until Monday to allow viewing,(2 days lost). Don’t forget, everybody isn’t on the TINTERNET.

I still can’t understand why Go-Ape politely asked me, could I mention any-one else who should be notified. I always thought that information would available on pre-application discussions, it’s not for me or anyone else to get involved in the necessary process of a planning application. Or was it to get brownie points for a later date.

On the plans they sent to me (pre-application) they refer to tree number 41, I smell a rat when there is no mention of any trees numbered 1 to 40 or 42 onwards.

Where did this magical number 41 come from, if it was a new phase you would expect it to be No 1 or 101 or 201 or even follow on from the numbers on the last application,which was a 3 digit number. I suspect ( I may be wrong) that this application is the thin edge of the wedge for more and larger projects.

If we asked a million people to give a number between 1 and 500, how many would pick number 41?

If you want to know how NOT to lay tarmac, look no further than the MESS the highways department have made to the footpaths along Westoughton Road in Adlington. It is such a cheap and shoddy job, it’s coming up within 24 hours of being laid. One section of footpath (that was laid last week) has today been taken up and done again.

In this months Adlington update, Lindsey Hoyle mp stated that he was pressing for highways work to be done on the footpaths. (I think this lot fell of the back of a lorry) What a mess, somebody should be held accountable.

Is this another short-cut to getting a job done, let me think! short-cut I’ve heard that before or was it fast track. Never mind my mind must be failing.

BUT WHO WILL BE PAYING FOR THE MESS, will it be the same poor souls who will have to fund the cost of the LGO investigation. Unless these bills will be coming out of a different pot and not the Council Tax coffers, then I’ve got it wrong and stand to be corrected.

   We have been notified by go-ape that they intend to submit a planning application for another zip wire which will run from tree 411 (stockade at primary school end) taking a E.S.East route towards the bridle path. They say that the new zip wire will be approx 50 metres in length.

They intend to submit the plans during the week beginning the 16th Nov/09 , they have also asked us to let them know if there is anyone else we feel should be notified. We have replied respectfully stating that it not for us to tell them the requirements of a planning application within Lever Park.

When the plans have been submitted, we will be calling a meeting of “Friends of Lever Park” supporters, and hopefully we will also be in a position to bring the supporters upto date on the LGO investigation and the ICO investigation.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Looks like we’ve been here before, GoApe are at it again, this time down in Eastleigh in Hampshire. Eastleigh BC are threatening local protestors with fines and possible jail for displaying protest signs in their gardens. GoApe state their only involvement is that their name is on the signs, wonder why. Lets hope we can help them head off the GoApe onslaught before its too late. Watch this space for updates. We are offering our assistance.