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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Below are 4 invoices Wates Construction Limited to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service for work to do with the Saughall Massie pre-construction agreement. I requested these invoices as part of the 2016-17 audit and they arrived through the post today.
The invoices spell it as Saughall Massey rather than Saughall Massie. The invoices are dated March 2016 (for £4,696.99), April 2016 (for £4,547.96), May 2016 (for £12,086.83) and August 2016 (for £2,907.61). Total spending was £24,239.39 (all amounts in this paragraph include VAT).
I also received a copy of the pre-construction service agreement between Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Wates Construction Ltd. As it’s around 45 pages long I don’t have the time just now to scan it in or publish it today.
The contract is also with Todd & Ledson LLP. I haven’t requested invoices for the 2016-17 financial year relating to Todd & Ledson LLP and the Saughall Massie project as there is only one that could relate to this for £2,500 dated 25.4.16 (although it is possible this invoice relates to completely different work as it is just described as services).
Wates Construction Ltd invoice March 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resizedWates Construction Ltd invoice April 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resizedWates Construction Ltd invoice May 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resizedWates Construction Ltd invoice August 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resized
Wirral Council’s Planning Committee will be deciding on the revised planning application (APP/17/00306) at a public meeting starting at 6.00 pm on Thursday 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
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Why did over a hundred residents go to a Planning Committee site visit on the Saughall Massie fire station proposal?
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Planning Committee (Wirral Council) site visit Saughall Massie APP/17/00306 18th July 2017
In a grassy field on a summer morning, Wirral Council’s Planning Committee met to visit the site for a proposed fire station in Saughall Massie on Wirral Council owned land just off Saughall Massie Road.
Many local residents and two of the three local councillors (Cllr Bruce Berry and Cllr Steve Williams) were there to observe what happened on the site visit.
There were many with placards opposing the planning application for greenbelt reasons.
Cllr Eddie Boult turned up much earlier for the site visit than the other councillors on the Planning Committee.
Cllr Anita Leech, Chair of the Planning Committee opened the site visit and explained the purpose of the site visit and the procedure that would be followed. She asked a planning officer (Matthew Parry-Davies) to introduce the planning application. Unfortunately Matthew’s voice wasn’t very loud.
Matthew Parry-Davies (who works in Wirral Council’s planning department) explained that the revised planning application was for “a single storey two bay community fire station”.
He explained that access to the fire station (if planning permission was granted) would be from Saughall Massie Road. Mr Parry-Davies described the distances to the nearest properties on two different sides of the site.
The footprint of the proposed building and site perimeter had already been pegged out (both the footprint and the building had been reduced compared to the original planning application). The orientation had also been changed. The generator and sprinkler had been relocated and the training tower had been moved too.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) asked if any of the Planning Committee had any questions.
Cllr Eddie Boult asked for the differences in distance to adjoining properties between the original planning application and revised planning application. Matthew Parry-Davies answered.
Cllr Steve Foulkes asked if there would still be access to the rest of the site for the general public.
Cllr Treena Johnson asked questions about the retractable tower and its height when down and up. Matthew Parry-Davies answered her questions.
Cllr Anita Leech asked how long it would take to put up and down.
Cllr David Elderton answered with how often it would be up.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) asked if any ward councillors for the area had any questions.
Cllr Steve Williams (a councillor for Moreton West and Saughall Massie ward) pointed out the distance between the perimeter and nearby houses.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) asked Colin Schofield of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to confirm which tape and posts marked the site boundary. He did.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) confirmed that the blue posts were the site boundary and the red posts were for the building.
Cllr Bruce Berry (a councillor for Moreton West and Saughall Massie ward) asked a question about car parking and asked how vehicles would go on and off the site.
Matthew Parry-Daives answered him.
The Chair of the Planning Committee asked if any ward councillors had any more questions to ask?
Cllr Steve Williams (a councillor for Moreton West and Saughall Massie ward) asked if there would be any controlled burning on the site.
The Chair of the Planning Committee referred to a planning condition in relation to this.
She then asked if anyone else wanted to point out anything “of significance”?
Various residents asked questions or made points about flooding, traffic issues, the site of the generator, vehicles leaving and entering the site, site levels, where fire engines were called out to, traffic, residential amenity and where the optimal position for a fire station to replace West Kirby and Upton was.
Cllrs Eddie Boult and Cllr Steve Foulkes (both on the Planning Committee) made further points.
The site visit ended with the Chair, Cllr Anita Leech thanking everyone for their attendance.
Pictures below this article are photos of the green belt site and people present for the site visit.
Wirral Council’s Planning Committee will meet to decide on planning application (APP/17/00306) for a fire station on land (owned by Wirral Council) adjacent to Saughall Massie Road in Saughall Massie at a public meeting starting at 6.00 pm on the 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall, first floor, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
Cllr Eddie Boult (foreground) at the site visit of Wirral Council’s Planning Committee to Saughall Massie 18th July 2017
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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The Hitchhikers Guide to the Saughall Massie Fire Station Part 1
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Saughall Massie Fire Station Part 1
Land off Saughall Massie Road Saughall Massie 13th December 2016 SAVE OUR GREEN BELT SAY NO TO THE FIRE STATION banner
People of Saughall Massie, your attention, please.
This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council.
As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of Saughall Massie require the building of a fire station on your green belt. And regrettably, your green belt is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than three of your Earth years. Thank you.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s only a few miles away and they have a website you know.
I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.
I don’t know, apathetic bloody village, I’ve no sympathy at all.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the western arm of the Wirral lies a small unregarded village called Saughall Massie.
This village has a problem which was this: most of the people in it were unhappy for pretty much of the time about the plans for a fire station on greenbelt land. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of them involved either building it elsewhere or keeping Upton open.
And the problem remained; the planning application was refused, but revised and lots of people were miserable.
Many (apart from councillors on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority) were increasingly of the opinion that the whole thing had been a big mistake in the first place.
And then, one Thursday, years after the first 12 week consultation on the new fire station when the residents of Greasby told the fire service what they thought of their plans to demolish their library, one journalist sitting on his own in Bidston suddenly realised what it was that had been going wrong all this time and he finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place.
Sadly, however, before could get to a keyboard and tell anyone about it the idea was lost forever.
This is not his story.
But it is the story of the fire station in Saughall Massie and some of its consequences.
But first a journey back in time to two fictional meetings.
“I have a dream comrades, of having no Conservative MPs on the Wirral!”
*cheers*
“But to do this, we will have to blame something on Esther!”
*boos*
“and her government!”
*louder boos*
“Any ideas what we could do?”
*audience looks to each other and one brave soul answers*
“Close a fire station?”
“No, that is not bad enough comrades, we will *dramatic pause* close two fire stations!”
*audience mutters*
“That’s not going to be enough!”
“OK, then how about closing two fire stations, planning to demolish Greasby library and community centre, then giving our Labour candidate the credit for stopping the plans while blaming it all on the government!?”
*cheers all round*
“Right, any other business?”
*there’s always one*
“But if we give our candidate the credit for stopping the fire station being built in Greasby where will the new fire station go instead?”
*everone looks confused*
“Name one Conservative councillor you dislike comrades!”
“Chris Blakeley, he works for Esther McVey.”
“OK, comrades, Saughall Massie it is then!”
“What do you *expletive deleted* mean the Labour Chair of the Planning Committee voted to refuse the planning application for a fire station at Saughall Massie?”
“Err, well, she did!”
“Well, get Cllr Phil *expletive deleted* Davies to change the *expletive deleted* Chair of the *expletive deleted* Planning Committee before it gets decided again then!”
“Err, well that’s not up to Cllr Phil Davies, it’s a vote of the Labour Group of councillors each year and then of all Wirral Council councillors.”
“*expletive deleted* democracy! Aren’t we the *expletive deleted* Labour Party?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we should act like it’s a dictatorship!”
“Well we *expletive deleted* don’t have any scheduled elections (apart from in Claughton) this year of councillors to Wirral Council, so why not?”
“Because it would harm the Labour Party. I thought we were supposed to be on the side of the ordinary people?”
“Not when we *expletive deleted* have a chance to blame our own decisions on the government!!!”
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