A CONTROVERSIAL plan to establish a clay pigeon shooting club on Green Belt land at Rixton, Warrington has been thrown out by planning chiefs.
Members of the borough council’s development management committee voted unanimously to refuse permission for the change of use of land at Prospect Farm, Prospect Lane, Rixton.
A total of 358 individual objections were received, plus two petitions signed by a total of 269 people.
There were also objections from Birchwood Town Council, Rixton-with-Glazebrook Parish Council, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Warrington Nature Conservation Forum, the borough council’s natural environment officer, Risley Moss Action Group and Woolston Eyes Conservation Group.
The plan involved using farm land for a clay pigeon shooting club, with a clubhouse and associated parking spaces.
Ten timber acoustic shooting enclosures, 10 air rifle enclosures and five archery enclosures were proposed.
Six people spoke against the proposal.
Local resident Deborah Mawdsley, a member of the fifth generation of her family to live on Rixton Moss, said the shooting club would have a devastating environmental impact on the last oasis of tranquillity between Warrington and 
Salford.
Residents were fiercely opposed to the proposal which, with a massive increase in traffic and noise pollution, would destroy a thriving natural habitat.
Geoff Settle, chairman of Warrington Nature Conservation Forum, said Warrington had three local Sites of Special Scientific Interest – Woolston Eyes, Rixton Clay Pits and Risley Moss – and the proposed shooting range would be “smack bang in the middle of them.”
Members of the Woolston Eyes Conservation Group regularly witnessed birds’ instinctive fear of gunshot noise and 
he had seen it when demonstration shots were fired from the Prospect Farm site.
It was clear the effects on local wildlife would be considerable – including birds which were classed as an endangered species.
Delegates to an international conference at Risley Moss last year had been impressed by the rich variety of birds seen locally – but where dumbstruck when they heard there was a proposal for a shooting club so near.
Local councillor Bill Brinksman said if the shooting club was allowed to go ahead it would have a horrendous impact on a tranquil, rural community which had its own culture and lifestyle. The last bit of Green Belt land between Warrington and Manchester would be lost forever.
The committee was told that clay pigeon shooting was allowed on 28 days in a year without planning consent. But if the application was approved it would take place two or three times a week throughout the year.
The applicants – the Prospect Target Club – claimed the development would provide essential and secure training for amateur and professional shooters.
There were 300 members of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) in Cheshire but only one accredited BASC facility in the county.
Ten new jobs would be created and five existing jobs retained and the facility would attract £400,000 a year in consumer expenditure at local hotels, food, retail and leisure outlets.
The application was supported by the National Disabled Shooters Club and the bulk of the site will be given over to landscaping, with 8,000 trees being planted.
Councillors decided unanimously to refuse planning consent. But a retrospective application to upgrade a track leading to the site, and another for a two metre high boundary fence, were approved.
Pictured right: Geoff Settle (top) and Bill Brinksman
