Greenberfield Locks Development Refused by Pendle Councillors.
A campaign organised by Ian Lyons resulted in victory on Monday night. Thanks to overwhelming support from the public, a planning application for over a hundred houses near the Grade II listed Greenberfield Locks in Barnoldswick has been refused by the Development Management Committee on Monday 22nd January. More than 80 letters of objection were raised in writing and the public decision meeting held at the spacious Rolls Royce Leisure Centre ran out of seats for the large number of residents that attended, demonstrating the strength of local feeling.
Speaking at the meeting, Ian Lyons told the Committee, “It would clearly breach several areas of the Planning Act 1990. In particular, the sections on listed buildings and conservation areas. Likewise, this is a greenfield site and a development here would entirely contradict policies ENV1 and LIV1 of the Pendle Local Plan. Therefore, I believe the panel has no choice but to refuse this application today.”
After the meeting, Ian Lyons commented, “It’s been a big challenge trying to relay information to residents and ensure they had enough time to get a submission into Pendle Council and get along to the important meetings. But the result of the meeting has made it all worthwhile. Whilst it may not be completely over, and I suspect the developers may appeal or submit a different application, it’s a big win for local residents and we can be happy with the result for now. I want to say a big thankyou to everybody that helped me to campaign against the development.”
Andrew Stephenson MP hit out at the Labour Council Leader, Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, for failing to adapt Pendle’s plan to fit the much lower Governments housing targets, “Following a huge public consultation, the Government cut Pendle’s housing targets to reflect the needs of the Borough. However, Pendle Council, under the shambolic leadership of Cllr Iqbal, has completely failed to adapt the local plan to reflect this. This puts unnecessary pressure on the Council to build on Pendle’s greenfields to meet their own housing targets. I urge Cllr Iqbal to lower Pendle’s housing targets and relieve the pressure that he has put on our greenspaces.”