WARRINGTON North MP Helen Jones and a group of Labour members of the borough council have been accused of carrying on a “vendetta” against a Town Hall chief.
Instead of calling for the resignation of the borough’s director of environment and regeneration, Andy Farrall, they should be uniting with others to fight the controversial plans to build 150 houses at Peel Hall, according to Liberal Democrat leader Ian Marks.
He said: “Far be it for me to intrude on the ongoing internal fighting within the Labour Party, but their energies would be better spent on uniting with others to fight this proposal, rather than calling for heads to roll.
“No one wants houses at Peel Hall, although we are at a loss to understand why the ruling Labour 
group has repeatedly refused to give added protection to Peel Hall Park by failing to designate it as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.”
Cllr Marks was speaking out following repeated demands by the Warrington North MP and a group of five councillors for Mr Farrall to offer his resignation over the council’s failure to deal with the Peel Hall planning application within the required time.
As a result, developers Satnam have appealed on the grounds of non-determination.
Cllr Marks admitted there were issues with the council’s planning department but pointed out this had been recognised a while ago when a cross-party panel was set up to look into the situation.
More recently, it was recognised again in an internal review of the Satnam application by chief executive Professor Steven Broomhead.
Cllr Marks added: “What the group who have it in for Andy Farrall choose to forget, is the excellent work he has done in working with the private sector to generate growth and jobs in Warrington.
“Starting under the previous Lib Dem/Conservative administration, he did all the groundwork for the massive Bridge Street/Market development which is now getting underway.
“We asked him to produce masterplans for the southern gateway and waterfront scheme which one day will transform our town so we embrace the river rather than turn our back on it. He produced plans for Victoria Park and Bank Park.
“He was in the forefront of setting up the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership which was one of the first in the country.
“The Centre for Cities Report for 2013 shows Warrington is again the best performing city/large town in the North West. A study by Santander ranks Warrington within the top 20 towns for business in the country.
“We should be very grateful to Andy Farrall for his work with partners in generating prosperity for the town.”
Pictured: From the top: Helen Jones, Andy Farrall and Ian Marks.
3 Comments
Coun Marks wants to get in the real world! He is obviously not in touch with the electorate who are simply fed up with these highly paid officers of WBC ducking their responsibility. It’s time that someone paid the price for the debacle that is called a Planning Dept. Remember that many of the mistakes in the planning dept took place during Coun Marks watch. Could it be that the Directors, having been reduced in number, now have too large a department to control. Big is certainly not beautiful!
Elected councillors should be supporting the call form action in response to the call from the elctorate. What is the Leaders position regarding this call for action?
We can all live in hope.
Or you could look at some other aspects of his track record and those of the planning department…
And isn’t this the Ian Marks who was the Leader of the Council who refused to do anything about one or two planning scandals while he was in office? Including the Granddaddy of them all.
Mr Marks having a pop at Labour again …………tiresome…
and his attempts to boost Mr Farrall CV’s is abit woeful….he lists his achievements as pie in the sky work that is yet to actually go ahead and is most probably many years away from happening if at all……what has he DONE…tell us that dont list things like the bridge street gateway or the market and time square stuff…they are dead ducks. People are leaving the Town centre in droves due to people like Mr Farrall…………..the man should resign most people accept that…..except Mr Marks