An awful lot has happened in the last few months, since the Public Enquiry in which the Governments Planning Inspector refused planning permission. So we thought we would try to give you a summary of what has gone on.
In January 2012 the developer Metacre submitted another planning application on half of the site but this time for 100 houses. See below for location
This was heard by Fylde’s Planning Committee on September 12th. You can read a report of this meeting on the Counterbalance website.
http://www.counterbalance.org.uk/latest/wesdev05.htm.
The Comittee voted to reject the application six against, five in favour and three abstensions.
Several weeks later the deveoper submitted exactly the same application. The Fylde BC planning office accepted this but under rule 70b of the Town and country Planning Act the Fylde planning committee could decide not to consider this application. The meeting to decide if they should accept the 2nd application was held on the 19th Decmeber, but just in case the committee decided to accept the application, Fylde BC also put the actual application on the same agenda.
The committee again voted for common sense and despite strong advice from the council’s own planning officers the councillors voted not to accept the application and therefore it was not necessary to hear the actual application. (Confusing isn’t it. It gets worse but try to stick with us! ) You can again read about it in more detail on the Counterbalance website. Click Here
However in the meantime the developer must have decided to cover all of his bases. So he put in an appeal against the planning committee’s September decision to refuse the application to the Secretary of State . So we are now subject to yet another Public enquiry. The Enquiry has been set for 19th February 2013 and the good news is, that it is being held in Wesham’s Community centre.
Wesham Action Group will again be defending the appeal under a Rule 6. This is a rule which allows local groups rto be represented at appeals. So if you are around in the Wesham area please pop in to the enquiry. We need to show as much support as possible the enquiry is open to the public at all times and should last three days. We will also need you to put in yet more letters of objection, details will follow.
So to try to summarise what has happened over the past three years:-
December 2008 – Planning application submitted by Developer for 268 houses
May 2009 Petition handed into council with over 900 signatures from Wesham residents against the application
March 2010 – Planning Committee votes unanimously to refuse the application
April 2010 Developer submits an Appeal to the Secretary of Stete
September 2010 – Public Enquiry held in Lytham
March 2011 – Government Planning Officer decides to refuse the application
March 2011 – Secretary of State, Eric Pickles endorses the planning inspectors decision
May 2011 – Developer submits a Judicial review against the Secretary of State decison
May 2011 – Judicial review rules in favour of the Secretary of State
January 2012 – Developer submits an application for 100 houses on half the site
June 2012 – Petition handed into council with over 1000 signatures against the 100 house application
Septempber 2012 – Fylde Planning Committtee votes to refuse the application
October 2012 - Developer submits an identical application for 100 houses
November 2012 – Developer puts in an appeal into the Governments Planning Inspector against the committee’s September 2012 decision to refuse the application
December 2012 – Planning Committee Refuses to accept the second application
February 2013 – Public Enquiry into the Sept application
reject the planning application for the 264 Houses on the Land North of Mowbreck Lane.