THE battle for the green fields of Peel Hall, Warrington may still not be over – despite the Secretary of State this week giving approval to the controversial plan for 1,200 homes.
This is the view of the Conservative Group on Warrington Borough Council, who point out there are many new and different conditions attached in the 166-page decision letter.
As a result, other appeals could, follow and at the end of the day, the detailed plans still have to go back to the borough council’s development management committee for approval.
In a statement, the group said: “Is it all over? We still don’t know for sure.”
Group leader Cllr Kath Buckley said: “Many Warrington residents and councillors have campaigned on this for many years and will be left feeling terribly disappointed.
“We will continue to engage with the planning process to ensure that any Peel Hall developments have as little impact as possible on neighbouring wards.
“We will fully support any reasonable legal appeal by the council to overturn the decision or improve the deal for Warrington.”
The Tory group say the 30-year battle between with Satnam Developments has been extremely complex.
“Where are we after 30 years of dispute? To summarise what has happened in recent years: In 2016 Satnam applied for planning permission for their development and the borough council said ‘no’.
“Satnam then appealed to a planning Inspector who said ‘yes’ in 2017. The case was then escalated to the Secretary of State who said ‘no’ in 2018. However the developer was able to appeal again to the High Court who re-opened the appeal process in 2019, at which point it went back to the Planning Inspectorate for another Inquiry in 2020.
“This resulted, this week, in the Secretary of State having to take into account the detailed findings of the inspector and giving the latest “yes” decision.
“But is it all over? Well, we still don’t know for sure because in his 166 page letter, the Secretary of State has included many different conditions on this outline plan.
“Over a period of 30 years residents and politicians from all parties have campaigned hard against the development of Peel Hall; this week’s news leaves many feeling gutted.
“We would like to thank Warrington planning officers for working so hard over so many years in resisting the original unsustainable plans and securing so many conditions controlling development as well as requiring significant funding from the developer for improvements to local infrastructure.”
