More rubbish planned for Huncoat

Acrylic-bob · 14-08-2005, 10:03

I received a letter from Lancashire County Council this week, which was nice! I am always pleased when the people who help themselves to my hard earned money deign to acknowledge my existence and their duty to represent my opinion.

The occaision of the letter was a planning proposal, the Sender was a person who signs himself Robert Hope and describes himself as a Planning Officer.

"I have advertised the proposal in the local newspaper and posted a notice on the site," he helpfully informed me, and continued, "but I am contacting you personally to request your views." Which would have been more believable had it not been for the fact that he addressed me not by my given name, which Lancs C.C. appear to have no difficulty with when it comes to asking me for money, but as "The Owner/Occupier" which is how they prefer to address me on all other occaisions.

The subject of the planning proposal on which Mr Hope is anxious to seek my opinion is as follows:

"Proposal: The development of a waste management facility including a residual waste transfer building a recyclate handling plant a mechanical biological treatment plant in vessel green waste composting plant and the development of offices and access road associated landscaping and ancilliary works
Location: Site of former huncoat power station huncoat and land to the west of the a56 near huncoat"

The punctuation, or lack of it, is accurate. I have ommitted the fact that the quoted sentence is composed entirely in uppercase characters since it might be considered that I was shouting.

This is the Plan which will see Huncoat sandwiched between a landfill site, which has recently been given permission to operate for another forty years, and a massive waste processing sitewhich will be open from 7am - 9pm Monday to Saturday and 9.30am - 5pm on Sundays and which will receive an estimated 544 heavy goods vehicles per day.

This is the Plan which Jean Battle, responding to accusations of County Hall High-handedness a month ago, assured her constituents was most definitely not a "done deal".

This is also the plan which, unless the residents of Hyndburn in general and Huncoat in particular object to in the strongest terms imaginable, will be rubber stamped by Lancashire County Council next month.

You may be certain that I shall be taking full advantage Mr Hope's invitation to comment on the proposal and I would strongly suggest that unless members wish to see our borough turned into the dustbin of Lancashire that they also take this opportunity to make their objections heard.

Mr Hope helpfully includes in his letter details of how opinions and objections may be lodged:

By letter to:
Stuart Perigo,
Development Control Group Head,
Planning Service,
PO Box 9, Guild House,
Cross Street,
Preston, PR1 8RD

By Fax to:
01772 533898

By Email
A proforma may be found at www.lancsdevelopment.com (though when I tried to access this site this morning it was not responding).

Alternatively you may try [email protected]

The closing date for objections is 1st September 2005.

Write soon!

Mick · 14-08-2005, 10:21

Hey Bob
You mean your going to turn it down your NOT against this are you?
Look on the good side all them jobs it will make, and if your rubbish bin gets full you wont have far to go to empty it will you hehe .
And i hope you will be looking forward to the funny smells in summer too

Yes i will be sending them an E-mail
we dont need more rubbish its hard enough trying to get rid of the rubbish we have

lettie · 14-08-2005, 10:24

Not a done deal eh....... I think that we have two hopes here. No hope and Bob (Robert) Hope apparently...

Needless to say, I shall be adding my twopenneth...

Acrylic-bob · 14-08-2005, 10:48

Speaking personally, I think that I would have more confidence in the planning process if it was run by Bob Hope, but sadly he is no longer with us.

garinda · 14-08-2005, 10:51

Until recently I didn't know Huncoat that well, and was suprised at what a nice village it is with some great walks too.

I to will be sending my opinion to the powers that be. Thanks for bringing it to greater attention.

If it has got to the stage of writing to residents in the area, why hasn't this story been featured more in the local press?

Acrylic-bob · 14-08-2005, 11:38

Errmmm?

Could it be because they would rather write about Senior proms than issues which affect the quality of life?

Because they are more concerned with circulation than news?

Because they don't care because they don't have to live here?

(Delete whichever is inapplicable)

lettie · 15-08-2005, 07:14

I don't think I need to delete any of those A-B.

I will go for all of the above...

mez · 15-08-2005, 07:48

me too, huncoat !!!! yet again!!!!! why can't they stick it in preston..........see how they like it !!

fireman · 15-08-2005, 20:49

My objections have been posted today, how much more s--t are the powers that be going to bestow on this village. HBC tried to fob us off with a few hanging baskets and called it Huncoat in Bloom. This would be Huncoat in Doom if it goes ahead and I fot 1 will be applying for a substantial reduction in my £1300.00 a year Council tax.

Acrylic-bob · 16-08-2005, 05:16

For those of you planning to send in your objections here are a few points you might like to consider...

The proposed plan will almost certainly be constructed by a non local firm employing non-local labour.

The disruption to traffic flows and the mess created during construction, most of which will have to go through the village.

The site in question has over the last twenty years returned to scrub land and is now home to an increasingly diverse population of wildlife, these will be put at risk.

The site is also used as a safe corridor for Deer.

The proposal envisages building an access road across green belt land.

544 HGV movements per day, seven days per week will increase traffic noise and congestion in the area.

At a time when a multi-million Pound investment in a new horse racing track is proposed for land adjacent to the site, siting a waste treatment plant would do nothing to assist a proposal which would bring real benefits to local businesses and jobs

The proposals would have a severely detrimental effect on already depressed property prices.

And finally, nobody in their right mind could see this as a positive development or welcome it as an improvement to the area.

SPUGGIE J · 16-08-2005, 17:06

I grew up in Huncoat and enjoyed it we could run around without any fear (apart from the wagons going to the brickie). Now it is going to become a noisy hell hole were kids cannot play for the fear for their safty as well as scooby dooing the walks up especially towards Hapton woods (dispite BBC calling it Burnley woods).
Never mind building it in Preston build it in Sedgefield, TB's constituency and see if they like it. G-mans right it is a nice little village lets keep it that way.