Jump to content

Planners recomend refusal... but why ?


Dizzy

Recommended Posts

Front page news today..... but planners are recommending the scheme be blocked.  WHY ?

Their reasons seem a bit lame to me as plenty of other Lidls and the likes have been allowed near other shops and in areas where there are already other businesses.  They also say that access (off Thewlis Street) 'will cause extra congestion in the area and increase the risk of collisions as cars exit and enter the site'... maybe but hang on a minute haven't they recently done a lot of work around Sankey Green (Pink Eye) roundabout to increase traffic flow etc.  Another reason they give is 'development would impact on planned investment in the town centre' but why as it's not in the town centre and surely one Lidl and a KFC wont impact on the town centre...unless of course the council are planning on doing something else with that area themselves ?

What is it with this large piece of empty land as it's been empty and derelict for well over 20 years years, maybe even longer than that, and I'm told other applications have been blocked too in the past along with ones for the old flour mill building that was once there too although I can't be 100% sure about all that as the Council's interactive Planning map isn't working again.  It simply says 'There was a problem accessing the server.' 

http://www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/articles/20315/1/Discount-food-store-plan---with-drive-through-restaurant/Page1.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having destroyed the town centre with their past decisions; allowing out of town retail centres everywhere and most recently allowing the development on Winwick Road to expand significantly, how the hell can the councillors and officers possibly justify not allowing development on what is a massive eyesore of over grown land?

 

I think somebody somewhere didn't get a big enough brown envelope :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And another thing... they approved the new Aldi store along with a large pub, a Costa drive through and a few small retail units on the old Fordton Leisure Center on Winwick Road.  All that is now open and that's not far from other stores like Tesco and Mc Donalds and the Alban Retail Park, which like Baz says is now being expanded.   The access to everything now on the Fordton old site is off a residentail type street too and so surely if traffic was really an issue with the Sankey Green one all that at Fordton should never have been passed. 



 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since this development doesn't appear in the WBC Local Plan Core Strategy which was carved in stone just last year, the council have strangled it at birth.

I expect that projects with little merit which do appear on the sacred document will be embraced and fast tracked using the same dogmatic approach to planning.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't ID the precise area, but could there be a link between this area and the proposed "new" Mersey crossing? As for "plans"; they keep some councillors and officers engaged for years in producing, plus the so-called public consultation exercises; only to be cast expediently aside at the first whiff of a bung.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There have rumours going round for a few years that this area of land was earmarked for the new bridge to meet up with the Pink Eye roundabout (Sankey Green) Obs and the rumours grew when works to widen and change the road layout around the island were approved and have now been done, although I always wondered how it would get over the Crosfields site if all that was true. 

Now the proposed plans for the two bridges have been shown (link to David Mowatt's map on the other topic about the 2 new bridges) it seems not as one of them meets Sankey Way up near the David Lloyd centre.   Of course they are only proposals though..........

So you can get your bearings the piece of land is here with all the trees and overgrown shrubbery.... next to the Pink Eye/Sankey Green island cornering Thelwis Street.  It's quite a big plot when you see it from above too.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Warrington+WA5+1TW/@53.3880574,-2.6102008,339m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x487b024380ea9593:0xa7fff1453bacb303

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You cant get on that land Evils as there's a wall/fence round it and it's all overgrown or do you mean they park on the roadway next to it and round to the pub ?

There were only a couple of objections from residents and some in favour too when I looked at the planning application last week but I can't look again as WBC's interactive planning map STILL isn't working and I can't remember the planning reference number.  There was quite a large document that seemed to be against it in a lot of ways though but I think that was a council one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Big loop in the river there, you'd think they could take that out, straighten up the line of the river and reclaim all that land to the S/West?

Now there's a thought and surely it wouldn't be that hard to dig a new ditch to re-route the bend lower down near the bridge that goes over to Forest Way or even going straight across at the bottom of the loop.  Shall we all get our spades out and make a start :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Big loop in the river there, you'd think they could take that out, straighten up the line of the river and reclaim all that land to the S/West?

 

Surely a big loop in the river also means a big drainage channel too. Maybe filling the loop in would also cause land drainage problems in the area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After going onto Google street view I'm tickled that the councils arboriculture officer has frowned on the plan because clearing the area would 'greatly impact the street scene.'

I wouldn't like to see his front garden!

:lol: :lol: I hadn't noticed they had said that.  It all wants clearing either way though as it's apparently a dumping ground for needles and other crap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to agree with the planning veto as I am wonder  who in their right mind would want to build retail food outlets in such a place?

 

Are they looking at passing trade as customers  possibly those lost in the town maze or stranded in the traffic jams?

 

One use is possibly to rehouse these establishments in Sankey way opposite the chemical works  so that the narrow road can be widened and give better traffic flow through the area.

 

Either that or put the bus station there with and overhead pedestrian (and cyclist) path to the railway station over the sludge that constitutes the "river Mersey".

th

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wahl have you actually seen how many houses there are over that way not to mention other local businesses (non food) and I'm sure the people working at those would use the new shops and drive through/walk in KFC at lunchtime or after work too rather than to try and get through town to the other stores.  Seems like a pretty good place to build them to me.

I very much doubt they would rehouse all the establishments opposite Crosfields (Liverpool Road not Sankey Way there I think) if those are the ones you mean as wouldn't they they'd have to knock the church down too to widen it all ? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well it seems that they have deffered their veto decision pending further inquiries. Somebody forgot to tell them that some of the residents wanted the developement to go ahead. hmmm.

 

As for the co-op store being a consideration. Thought that competition was good for the community as it helps keep prices down.

 

If they were that worried about the town centre vitality why was iceland and aldi allowed to build next door to the town hall.

 

Has visions of several brown envelopes wandering the planning department over the next few months.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One aspect in the case against it was that it would detract from the Town Centre Regeneration Project.

This objection however would have been over-ruled by the public support for the application as funding for Regeneration Projects is reliant on the projects having input from the public and being crucially for the public's benefit.

 

I think they are skating on thin ice with the Bridge Street redevelopment.      

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, what were seeing in the Town is a piece meal exercise of creating several mini-town centres, rather than viewing the whole, and developing a comprehensive and mutually compatible plan for the whole Town Centre. After all, footfall is finite; there's only so many customers available; first they move the centre of gravity to GS, leaving Bridge Street to rot; now a new development to pull folk and shops away from GS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...