A new group has been formed in Bolton, RAGE, Residents Against Greenbelt Exploitation.
In the Greenbelt there is a presumption against development. Whilst the initial focus of the group is the development of a new house, in the West Pennine Moors Greenbelt, the omission of the West Pennine Moors in the proposed Bolton Core Strategy has not gone unnoticed. In particular the proposal to remove Rivington and Winter Hill as a key place for toursim and turn the location into probably the largest waste processing and land fill site in Greater Manchester.
Blackrod and Horwich Environmental Action Group have been asking Bolton Council seven very simple questions for nearly six months. Depite being escalated to Sean Harriss the Chief Executive since the beginning of the year, Bolton Council have refused to answer these questions.
One such question was that in October 2009, Bolton Council stated that there was an agreed restoration plan for Pilkington Quarry. The Environment Agency stated they were not aware of this plan ( despite the fact they should have been consulted). The council have now ammended their position stating “I am confident that a plan was agreed” but have so far failed to provide any evidence.
In fact the only document we can find, would allow the importation of approximately six million tonnes of Greater Manchester Waste to be imported in to Horwich Moor. The document says it is approved and yet the Environment Agency objected to it in the strongest manner. We have asked for this “error” to be corrected but as yet the council have failed to do so.
During the 2008/9 Pilkington Quarry planning application it was necessary for the group to send a legal letter to the Council, to ensure they upheld their legal obligations. A significant amount of new evidence has been identified since this letter was written. Once again the council are showing total disregard for their own rule book and democracy, by refusing to answer our questions. The motif is unclear.
Residents Against Greenbelt Exploitation
