THE historic village of Winwick took centre stage at the public hearings into Warrington’s Local Plan at the Halliwell Jones Stadium Conference Centre, as local residents claimed there were no exceptional circumstances to alter the green belt.
At the session, three local residents, Stuart Mann, Andy Griffiths and Alan Parkinson, representing the 600 signatories who supported opposition to the inclusion of Waterworks Lane in the Local Plan along with James Heron, Parish Councillor for Winwick, brought forward a number of critical points challenging the consistency, validity, and necessity of the plan and ultimately asked for the allocated site be removed.
They said the criteria leading to an allocation of housing within Winwick are flawed and not consistently applied across the borough. The Local Plan allocation for Burtonwood had been completely removed apparently due to the proximity of the St Helens Plan inclusion of Bold Heath, however, the Winwick site was actually closer to Parkside – 0.8 miles vs 1.3 miles.
They said the scoring of this site specifically in the Green Belt Assessment had a number of issues, along with other omitted sites within the Parish, saying it was not up to date, accurate or reflective of the importance of these sites.
Stuart said: “This specific point was pulled to pieces by competing constructors who would prefer their alternate sites being included instead, however, all made the point that taking a step back and looking at the proposed site ‘in the round’ it is NOT clear why it was chosen at all and it felt like the Waterworks Lane site has just been ‘bolted on’ to the wider plan to make up the numbers.
“For example, there are electricity pylons on the site, acknowledged groundwater and contamination issues, historic mine workings, inadequate green belt boundary opportunities to the north, and less than 15ft to a highly protected and vitally important recognised historic battlefield.
“Indeed all but the incumbent developer could not understand why so much time was having to be spent talking about these serious issues and WBC attempting to mitigate those instead of just choosing one of the other sites that have none of these problems.”
WBC confirmed that the calculated appropriate number of houses for Winwick was actually 90 homes which led to many questions as to why the allocated site states a minimum of 130 and that developer hopes for 160+
Stuart added: “Our biggest concern – that the conclusion of WBC that the proposed development can be accommodated within the existing infrastructure is totally and utterly incorrect.
He said by the council’s own data, Winwick roads at capacity NOW. Winwick CofE Primary school at capacity NOW with no space to expand.
Hope Academy – main secondary school at capacity now plus Newton-le-Willows has a planned 800 additional homes in their Local Plan.
There were no Doctors, Dentists or Post Office in the village and a drastically reduced bus service – halved since 2000.
BUT since 2000 the village had already increased in dwellings by 39% due to developments at Winwick Park and Spires Gardens.
Stuart added: “When you take into account the existing approved developments of Peel Hall, Houghton Green and Delph Lane, all located within Winwick Parish, plus the 39% incremental growth since 2000 with no infrastructure improvements, we believe the scale of this development, indeed any additional development, is not appropriate and in accordance with the policies.”
“This is before the inclusion of the Peel Hall development which by itself would more than DOUBLE the number of homes in the parish all of whom would expect school places and services.
Regarding local services James added: “In the last 20 years, along with the 39% increase in dwellings within the Parish, there has been a reduction in local services.”
1 pub closed, Post Office closed, 1 Farm Shop closed, Mobile Library no longer visits and the local bus services have reduced dramatically during the working week to approximately one every hour
“There are no Doctors or Dentists within the parish, and on the investigation, the nearest ones to the village are located in Newton, Culcheth and Orford, all of which will also be affected by developments in their own areas, have no spaces for additional patients. There is nothing contained in the local plan for Winwick or nearby that would mitigate this risk.
“We have verbal evidence that residents in the village are already having to travel to south Warrington or unable to receive dentistry services.”
“All of the above would mean residents needing to drive some distance to find these services which is directly in conflict with WBC declared climate emergency.
“Our stand today was to make clear to the hearing that we believe that all of these factors mean that exceptional circumstances do not exist to alter the green belt within Winwick and that other locations within the borough that have been omitted are more viable to be delivered within the required period with fewer infrastructure requirements – e.g Burtonwood.
