How was the planning application (APP/17/00306) for a fire station in Saughall Massie decided?
How was the planning application (APP/17/00306) for a fire station in Saughall Massie decided?
Wirral Council’s Planning Committee 20th July 2017 voting to approve planning application APP/17/00306 (Saughall Massie fire station)
Edited 21.7.17 by JB to include contact details of National Planning Casework Unit and video clip part 2
Edited 23.7.17 by JB to include video clips part 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
Edited 24.7.17 by JB to include video clips 8, 9 and 10
Edited 26.7.17 by JB to include published video clips
Yesterday evening a large number of people waited in the Civic Hall for Wirral Council’s Planning Committee’s decision on planning application APP/17/00306 (for a fire station with a training tower, drill yard and car park on Wirral Council owned land in Saughall Massie in the greenbelt).
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13 councillors on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agree to site visit over controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application (APP/17/00306)
13 councillors on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agree to site visit over controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application (APP/17/00306)
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Cllr David Elderton (right) proposing a site visit for-planning application APP/17/00306 at Wirral Council’s Planning Committee meeting on the 22nd June 2017
ED – updated 26.6.17 to include time of site visit
Prior to Wirral Council’s Planning Committee meeting starting yesterday evening, the sprung floor bounced as over a hundred people came through the doors into the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall.
Most were there to see what would happen to planning application
APP/17/00306 (which was an amended planning application following the refusal of application APP/16/00985). Application APP/17/00306 was a revised planning application for a new fire station in Saughall Massie on greenbelt land owned by Wirral Council.
Those present patiently sat through the Chair’s regular speech about procedure, followed by approval of the minutes of the last Planning Committee meeting and a request for any declarations of interest to be made.
Finally, nearly three minutes into the meeting came the moment many were waiting for.
Councillor David Elderton (Conservative spokesperson) pictured above requested that the Planning Committee agree a site visit for planning application APP/17/00306 before a decision was made on it.
He explained that the layout and size had changed since the previous application.
The Planning Committee agreed for a site visit to be held on the 18th July 2017 starting at some point after 10.15 am (the minibus is scheduled to leave Wallasey Town Hall at around 10.00 am).
So what is a site visit?
It’s an opportunity for the Planning Committee to visit the site and see for themselves the site that the planning application is about.
Below is what happened at the site visit for the previous planning application (that was refused) that is related to this one held on the same site on the 13th December 2016.
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A time of day for the site visit has not yet been finalised now been given as 10.30 am, but Wirral Council will request that the applicant Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service “peg out” the proposed outline of the building and site.
The planning application is then expected to be determined at a Planning Committee meeting scheduled to start at 6.00 pm on the 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
Related to this matter, ward councillor Councillor Blakeley has also proposed a notice of motion on the green belt that will be discussed at the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on the 5th July 2017 in Committee Room 1 at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED starting at 6.00 pm. His notice of motion calls upon Wirral Council to “confirm its unconditional guarantee to protect Wirral’s green belt and further resolves that it will not release or allow Council owned green belt land to be developed under any circumstances.”
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Will Wirral Council receive £300,000 windfall for greenbelt Saughall Massie Fire Station site if planning application APP/17/00306 is approved?
Will Wirral Council receive £300,000 windfall for greenbelt Saughall Massie Fire Station site if planning application APP/17/00306 is approved?
Dan Stephens (Chief Fire Officer, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service) (left) answers questions at a public consultation meeting in Saughall Massie in 2015 to discuss proposals for a new fire station
In a 20 page planning report on a revised planning application for a fire station in Saughall Massie, councillors on the Planning Committee have been recommended to approve the application.
A previous application for a fire station was refused by Wirral Council’s Planning Committee on a 7:6 vote last year. An appeal of this planning application refusal to the Planning Inspectorate was considered but abandoned.
Wirral Council’s Planning Committee meets next week on Thursday 22nd June 2017, starting at 6.00 pm to consider the revised planning application in Committee Room 1 at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe. It is expected that a site visit will be requested at this meeting which if agreed will delay a final decision on the planning application to a later meeting of the Planning Committee (expected to be on the 20th July 2017).
As the planning report states, the petition of objection to the planning application has grown to 4,034 signatures and there have been 324 objections to the new application at the time the report was written.
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Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service recommend councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority appeal refusal of planning permission for Saughall Massie Fire Station to Planning Inspectorate
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service recommend councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority appeal refusal of planning permission for Saughall Massie Fire Station to Planning Inspectorate
Planning Committee meeting (Wirral Council) 15th December 2016 councillors voting to refuse planning permission for a fire station at Saughall Massie L to R Cllr Pat Cleary, Cllr Stuart Kelly, Cllr Ian Lewis, Cllr Kathy Hodson, Cllr Eddie Boult, Cllr David Elderton
The report to councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority criticises what ward councillor Councillor Chris Blakeley said at the Planning Committee meeting last month. The criticism relates to remarks the councillor made at the meeting about Upton Fire Station being a “fall-back” position, comments about the impact of a new fire station at Saughall Massie would have both on Arrowe Park Hospital and also what Cllr Blakleley stated about response times.
If the recommendation is approved by councillors on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority the costs of producing the documentation for a revised planning application are estimated in the report as “in the region of £56,000” (which would include a detailed lighting impact assessment). The costs of legal advice, preparation and representation for an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate are estimated to cost between £36,500 and £49,000.
The item is the last item on the agenda (item 9) and is expected to be held in public starting at 1.00 pm on the 26th January 2017 in the Liverpool Suite, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Bridle Rd, Bootle, L30 4YD.
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Will a planning appeal over the Saughall Massie fire station fail due to incorrect legal advice to councillors?
Originally this bundle was going to be published in a different way, but instead it will be published as an exclusive in serial form on this blog.
I’d better start by declaring an interest as the Appellant in First-tier Tribunal case EA/2016/0054, which is about an Environmental Information Regulations 2004 request for the estimates of capital costs involving a new fire station first at Greasby, then at Saughall Massie and the sale of fire stations at Upton and West Kirby.
Despite the bundle being 480 pages in total, there are hundreds of pages missing from it (such as the transcripts of the public meetings involved, communications between the 2nd Respondent (MFRA) and the 1st Respondent (ICO) etc).
