The village which said no McDonald's and Starbucks - and lost
Plus: Storm Darragh tragedy and council's no confidence vote
Hello and welcome to the 76th edition of The Lancashire Lead. The main story in today’s newsletter is about one village’s defeated effort to stop a McDonald’s and Starbucks being built - it’s a tale which related to urban sprawl, loss of rural identity, NIMBY accusations, the battle between past and future, and planning rules.
But before that, we focus on the effects of Storm Darragh which has battered Lancashire this weekend. Roads and rail have been affected, with sporting and Christmas events cancelled or postponed. But, most devastatingly of all was the loss of life of a van driver as a result of the storm.
Also in this edition is news of the council leader facing a no confidence vote and the latest politicians to resist closer ties with Lancashire neighbours.
Van driver killed as Storm Darragh wreaks havoc across county
It’s only very recently that this newsletter discussed the impact on bad weather on the county’s Christmas events. Then lights switch-ons and other festive celebrations saw attendances hit by heavy rainfall.
Fast forward to this weekend and the problem is back with dangerous winds in Storm Darragh once again stopping people from venturing out in what should be a key time for so many businesses. The extreme conditions saw Blackpool’s Christmas by the Sea forced to stay closed along with a host of other smaller events and attractions.
But while that may have been frustrating for those involved, something much more devastating occurred on our roads. At 9am on Saturday, a man died when a tree fell onto his van as he drove on the A59 near Hutton and Longton.
The man, in his 40s, was driving his Citroen van on the dual carriageway near Lancashire Police’s HQ when the tree fell on to his van. He was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
His next of kin have been informed and are being supported by a specially trained officer. Detective Sgt Matt Davidson, of our Serious Collision Investigation Unit said:
“Very sadly this incident has resulted in the death of a man and our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time.”
“An investigation is ongoing, and I would appeal to anyone who saw what happened or has any dashcam or mobile phone footage to please get in touch.”
Our thoughts go out to the loved ones of the man involved and to the emergency service workers for whom this will be another trauma in a career filled with far too many.
Anyone with any information is asked call 101 quoting log 0368 of December 7 or to email the Serious Collision Investigation Unit at SCIU@lancashire.police.uk
From farm and fields to burgers and coffee
On Wednesday evening, Wyre Council granted planning permission to a development which will see a drive-through McDonalds, a drive-through Starbucks and a Screwfix-style trade store built in a new estate in Garstang.
The development, located off the Garstang Bypass Road in Claughton-on-Brock, will also include offices and storage units and is a modified version of plans approved last year. While many locals have welcomed the new development, a significant number have been fiercely opposed.
Among the frequent complaints in the almost 250 objections lodged with the council’s planning committee are expected issues of litter, anti-social behaviour, congestion, road safety and the negative impact on existing local businesses. Four parish councils also registered formal objections citing similar reasons.
When The Lancashire Lead visited the village this week, one resident of 30 years - who did not wish to be named - explained she was among those who opposed the development.
Her concerns primarily related to litter and traffic, but also to the over-development of a rural village which has become increasingly urban with houses popping up either side of the A6. As we spoke at Beacon Retail Park with a new build estate behind us, builders continued work on a partially built house just a stone’s throw away. The woman said:
“This all used to be farms and fields, now there’s houses everywhere. It’s all well and good building them, but what about the doctors surgeries and everything else we need. It’s changed so much over the years. All this used to be farms and fields, look at it now.”
Asked if that change is for the better or worse, she said it was definitely the latter before continuing to go shopping at the Co-op.
Driving in from the southern side of the A6, the location doesn’t feel anything out of the ordinary for such a development. The proposed site appears after you’ve passed Barton Manor Hotel, Barton Grange Garden Centre and a couple of pubs and is located near to a timber year, animal auction house and industrial yards.
Further into Claughton-on-Brock, another villager expressed their frustration at the plan.
“We don’t want this. We don’t need it and we never asked for it. What will happen to the local businesses when these places open? If people want fast food, they can go elsewhere to get it. Why here?”
One phrase which you’ll read further down this newsletter is ‘Greater Preston’ and that is one which is used among some of the objectors to planning applications in this area. There are fears this development is just the latest step in Garstang and its various parishes quickly growing closer and closer to their neighbours until there is eventually little separation.
But that’s not to say there isn’t plenty of support too. Some of the contractors stopping for lunch at Subway were very pleased at the prospect of another option, while adding a new trade store was welcomed to avoid travelling further into Preston.
More than 120 residents submitted letters supporting the application; with new jobs, greater convenience; and no longer needing to leave Garstang to access such options among the reasons. Also raised by some was the idea that rather than encouraging or attracting anti-social behaviour, such places provide a safe place for young people to gather.
As more people move from urban to rural areas for the attraction of a quieter life with greater amenities than used to be available easy travel links to bigger cities, it is likely that generational divides such as this will play a role in such arguments.
Speaking after the planning meeting in which approval was voted unanimously, committee member and Garstang representative Cllr Alice Collinson, said:
“I don’t think there is any good reason to go against it - a version of this scheme had already been approved 12 months ago.
“Garstang is growing and people are looking for additional amenities. Some people don’t like change but things do change and you have to look to the future.”
Pool closure councillors face no confidence vote
By Robbie MacDonald
Two leading West Lancashire councillors face a motion of no confidence from opponents over proposals to close two swimming pools in Ormskirk and Skelmersdale.
Labour’s Yvonne Gagen, the leader of West Lancashire Borough Council (WLBC), and Carl Coughlan, a cabinet member with a leisure and youth remit, should resign, according to a motion from the Our West Lancashire group for debate by the full council on Wednesday.
It comes after WLBC held a public consultation over the potential early closure of the two pools, in an attempt to save money and explore new options for potential future leisure centres. Senior councillors had previously promised the pools would stay open until their replacements were built but they now say it’s not financially viable.
In October, West Lancashire councillors narrowly voted in favour, 23 to 22, for the public consultation and to explore other design options for future leisure facilities. Rising construction costs and council funding pressures were key factors, councillors heard.
The newly-refurbished Burscough Sports Centre was an example of the council’s support for leisure centres despite a tough financial backdrop, Labour councillors said.
But there were public protests outside the meeting and some councillors wanted to delay the consultation until later this winter, hoping more financial information might come from the new Labour government.
Now, the ‘no confidence’ motion has come from Cllr Adrian Owens on behalf of the Our West Lancashire (OWL) group. It states council priorities include fostering healthy communities, reducing health and well-being inequalities and designing services around residents and communities. It adds:
“The council notes with deep concern the proposals to close the council’s swimming pools at Nye Bevan and Park Pool. Also the failure to work with Lancashire County Council to bring any community sports back to the Glenburn site, the poor condition of many council grass football pitches and facilities. and the failure of the council to complete the Ormskirk-Burscough linear park for walking and cycling.
“Council believes that its priorities in health, well-being and leisure are not being effectively advanced under the current political leadership, impacting severely on the health, well-being and opportunities of the residents of West Lancashire.
“Therefore, council resolves that it has no confidence in the leader of the council, Cllr Gagen, nor the lead member for leisure, Cllr Coughlan, and calls on them to resign their positions with immediate effect.”
In October, the council’s ruling Labour group said new design options had to be considered for future pools and closing the Ormskirk and Skelmersdale pools earlier could help save money for long-term gains.
Cllr Gagen, who has a background in leisure and sport, strongly defended the Labour group’s record and motives, arguing factors including years of Conservative government austerity cuts to councils, high inflation and rising building and maintenance costs meant circumstances had changed over the past year or so.
Recent ideas drawn-up for replacement leisure centres were no longer affordable after estimated costs rose by £13million. But it is argued that new construction techniques, using steel swimming pools built above ground, offer faster, less expensive options which should be considered.
Cllr Coughlan said he understood public worries and that public consultation was needed. Without taking action soon, it was argued the council would be unable to address funding issues, making it impossible to get the future modern facilities that people want.
However, some Labour councillors, along with opposition Conservative and Our West Lancashire groups, argued the council should delay any decisions until December.
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🚨 The fire which caused the death of the parents of two young boys was caused by a lithium e-bike battery (Blackpool Lead).
📷 A perverted police officer abused his position to obtain naked photographs of members of the public – including a 16-year-old girl (Blog Preston).
🛬 The man in charge of Blackpool Airport says its future lies in domestic flights, not international (Business Insider).
👸 Fashion student Tabitha Bennett has been named Miss Blackpool - 40 years after her mum won the same title (Mail Online).
🏫 Schools in East Lancs have had to close temporarily as the council investigates alleged defects (LancsLive).
⚽ Morecambe FC has unveiled a special edition playing shirt that will raise funds for a local foodbank (Beyond Radio).
On what feels like an almost daily basis since Labour MPs brought forward plans to redrawn the county into much larger - and fewer - council areas, politicians have been keen to distance their patch from merging with another.
That’s where are again today, this time with smaller localities fighting against closer relations with Preston. Much like with efforts to distance other Fylde coast areas from Blackpool, the latest comments are likely to attract criticisms of snobbery but also come with a bid to protect identity.
By Paul Faulkner
Politicians representing some of the towns and villages being eyed up for an enlarged Preston say the places in question have no desire to become part of the city.
It comes after Preston City Council leader Matthew Brown wrote to the government calling for the creation of a new local authority covering a patch dubbed “Greater Preston”.
The plan would involve Penwortham, Bamber Bridge, Longton and Samlesbury – in South Ribble – Garstang in Wyre, and Longridge, Mellor and Balderstones in the Ribble Valley all leaving their current council areas and being incorporated into the newly expanded city.
The leader’s blueprint was prompted by a push from the majority of his party’s Lancashire MPs – including Preston’s Sir Mark Hendrick – for a radical shake-up which would slash the number of councils in the county from 15 down to just three or four.
The suggestions that have come forward so far have involved the formation of new standalone councils forged from the merger of existing local authority areas.
However, Preston’s border-busting proposal to conjure up a so-called ‘unitary’ authority on an entirely new footprint has drawn the ire of two neighbouring council leaders and a councillor who has represented his town for nearly 30 years.
Veteran Penwortham councillor David Howarth said of the idea, which was revealed earlier this week by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I think Preston has everything to gain and we have everything to lose.”
The Liberal Democrat added that Penwortham, which lies barely a mile from Preston city centre, has “a vibrant and growing local economy, with a high street that people want to visit”. He continued:
“We don’t have the problems of crumbling Guild Halls and boarded-up shops. So I think the simple answer [to this suggestion] is, ‘No, thank you.’”
Cllr Howarth, a Howick and Priory ward councillor on South Ribble Borough Council, has worked – but never lived – in Preston and came to Penwotham from his native Manchester in the early 1990s.
He says he is taking comfort from the fact he does not believe the Greater Preston pitch will be “taken seriously” by MPs or the government.
Meanwhile, Wyre Council’s Conservative leader Michael Vincent blasted what he described as Cllr Brown’s attempt to “annex part of neighbouring districts without the consent of the people or their elected representatives”. He said:
“The people of Garstang and the rural east areas of Wyre feel no affinity or connection to Preston and I’m confident they want to remain in Wyre as a district council.
“It’s clear that the Labour Party in Lancashire are not speaking to each other about their plans to ruin our great county. West Lancashire want to be in the Liverpool City Region, while the leaders of Chorley and South Ribble want them to be in a unitary together. Now, Cllr Brown wants to split up [the] West [of] Lancashire and have parts of it in Preston.
“They do not have a settled view and them surrendering themselves to this process before the white paper is released risks the future of properly functioning and well thought-out local government in Lancashire.”
Rupert Swarbrick, the Tory county councillor for the Longridge with Bowland division, said Longridge residents would find the idea of joining Preston “disturbing”.
“They would be particularly uncomfortable with the almost inevitable additional housing that would be doughnuted around the town. Planning would become a major challenge for us.
“Residents of Ribble Valley also enjoy free green bin collections and one of the lowest council taxes – if not the lowest – in Lancashire.
“[By] joining with Preston we’d end up almost certainly with a council tax increase – and it’s those sort of ‘back pocket implications’ that residents of Longridge would object to.”
Meanwhile, Ribble Valley Borough Council’s Conservative leader Stephen Atkinson was equally scathing of the Greater Preston proposal and the other moves to redraw Lancashire’s local authority map.
“I would ask when any of these Labour politicians are going to ask the residents [about their ideas] – it’s like they don’t exist, even though they pay for the councils with their council tax.
“Local government has grown from local corporations that responded to the needs of their local communities – they are organic, responsive and efficient.
“We now have a new government that talks about devolution of powers to local people, but some of whose MPs are asking for local government reorganisation without even consulting those people.
“Idealism – the belief in ideas – normally does more damage than good. Pragmatism – building on the existing and improving it – is what will deliver the best result.
“Focus on what the residents want – it’s their money and that’s why Ribble Valley will hold a referendum if its existence is threatened.”
Wyre has also pledged a local referendum on any formal proposals for council changes, with Cllr Vincent arguing that such a vote should be held in each of Lancashire’s 14 districts and boroughs.
Responding to criticism of his Greater Preston plan – and the city itself – Matthew Brown defended both the policy and the place.
“The proposals for a Greater Preston unitary are based upon Preston’s role as the administrative capital of Lancashire. Cllr Howarth’s negativity seems to miss the £120m of public regeneration Preston City Council is investing in, creating hundreds of jobs and [generating] new civic pride.
“If we are moving towards reorganisation of local government, it makes sense that it is done on sensible footprints which take account how our city is connected. Preston is a city on the up and talking our local economy down does no favours to anyone.”
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