Two communities – one cause
Unfortunately the ordering of the consultee responses, on the Bolton council website, have been corrupted and therefore no longer follow date ordering.
The links to the GMEU and GMGU comments are given below. As you will see it would appear that they have been mislead into believing this is about a ROMP permission, with the safeguards this presents. The permission to which this application refers is not a ROMP permission
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity
The order to change schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, will be made early in 2010 and will come into force on 06 April 2010.
Wildlife Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said:
“It is essential that our native species are given the protection they need to flourish. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and it’s more important than ever to do all that we can to halt the loss of biodiversity. Stopping the spread of invasive non-native species makes a real difference to the survival of our own native plants, birds and animals.”
Himalayan Balsam has been added to the schedule 9
Section 14 prohibits planting in the wild of plants listed in Part II of schedule 9, or otherwise causing to them grow there. These provisions are necessary to prevent the establishment of non-native species which may be detrimental to our native wildlife.
Link to the full story and further background. http://www.webnewswire.com/node/492309
Further information on control can be found using the links at the right hand side of this page
We would like to congratulate Friends of Lever Park, on the findings by the Local Government Ombudsman against Chorley Borough Council
6 counts of maladministration
2 counts of injustice
This unfortunately does not reverse the planning decision and the injustice that this causes, including effectively closing the bridleway on Sundays.
A new application regarding the Lever Park site is expected shortly, so please watch out on the approach to Christmas and make your opinion count.
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 finished extracting stone over three years ago.
It would be beneficial if you would make your views about this application known to the council – a link can be found on the right hand side of this page.
Comments lodged as a result of previous applications do not count, so make your views about this application known.
Remember it is one comment per person not per household
When commenting on the application you may also wish to ask about the following points :-
Application 61530/02to which this application references; we are told the file has been lost / cannot be located – we have been requesting them since 03/12/09. Please can you help locate it ?
Application 83299/09 no evidence has been provided to support the application regarding an administrative error
Application 61530/02 to which this application references; decision notice - why does the applicant have a different version of the decision notice to that posted on the Bolton Planning web pages (This was resolved 15/12/09)
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4SNYK_enGB307GB307&q=pilkington%20quarry%2C%20horwich&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl
The Director of Corporate Resources (Bolton Council) submitted a report which advised the Executive member of the current situation with regard to Montcliffe Quarry.
The report advised that the current lessee had served notice of their intention to cease extraction from the quarry and, as a result, the Council had been approached by Armstrongs Environmental Services Limited for the lease to be issued to them.
The report outlined a number of options available to the Council and a view was sought on the desired way to proceed -
Instruction received to discuss with Armstrong’s a strategic relocation of recycling operations from Horwich Loco to Montcliffe Quarry.
A letter has been sent to the Executive committe of Bolton Council, expressing our concerns
A new planning application has been made to extend the current operation until 2042
Please see the new application update, 83299/09 (click “home”)
We are currently considering our position
Over the last few months, various planning applications have resulted in residents coming together and fighting for the community. Many have formed residents groups – something that we would encourage.
We welcome the formation of
The Friends of Lever Park,
The Arcon Village Residents Association,
The Horwich Moor Residents Association,
The Montcliffe Residents Association.
Together we can make a positive difference
I am reminded of a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)
“First they came for the communists,
and I did not speak out
—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I did not speak out
—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews,
and I did not speak out
—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me
—and there was no one left to speak out for me
If you need support to speak out, contact us with total confidentiality at BHEAG@Hotmail.co.uk
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
The officers report is now on-line, with a recommendation to approve the application.
We would encourage anyone reading this article to read the reponses from the consultees (not all are available on-line !) and try to reconcile this with the report and the attached conditions.
(The planning application link on the right hand side will take you to the relevant council site)
We would also draw your attention to decision notices 50252/97 (limiting quarry operation until 2007) and 61530/02 (also limiting quarry operation until 2007 and also limiting transport), not 2042 as indicated in the application and officers report.
The application form advises 1.2 Million cubic metres for filling, subsequent correspondence from MPG would indicate this volume has now increased to 2.05 million tonnes.
We have identified a significant number of other discrepencies / issues.
An excellent quote from the Greater Manchester Geology Unit (GMGU) states :-
“An environmental statement should be comprehensive and include all relevant environmental information to inform the decision maker, consultees and the public and thereby enable scrutiny, comment and informed decision making”
The Planning meeting will consider this application at 14:00 on 29 October 2009.
The public are invited to attend
Please see the new application 83299/09 (click “home”)
Public planning meeting Bolton Town Hall. Thursday 29 October at 14:00
Site visit Thursday 29 October 10:10
This application has been discussed for sometime.
There are a large number of changes from the original application, which proposes to extract over three million tonnes of aggregate from the quarry and also process aggregate from external sources, in a 1.5 hectare site.
The application includes refilling the quarry with inert waste, to the original ground waste , ie filling with more than three million tonnes of waste.
Concerns include, veichle movement, noise (including blasting), air and water pollution, effect on the greenbelt.
At the Special meeting of the Horwich planning committee 8 October 2009, there were a large number of people who cast doubt on the applicants adherence to current planning and environmental restrictions and the fact that they do not appear to be operating using “best practice”, something that the application states is a pre-requisite.
Please see the new application 83299/09 (click “home”)
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