In case anyone doubts that they should object to planning proposals they believe will harm their local wildlife, let me tell you a story...
Last Tuesday we were made aware of a planning proposal for a 950 pitch caravan park, 400m away from our house, around some new-ish lakes on an old opencast mining site (for the Northumberland and Newcastle members of the forum, I'm talking about the Widdrington Moor lakes), which had been in since November last year, but about which the council had deliberately decided NOT to inform locals directly. These lakes have come to support quite a lot of waterfowl, breeding, passage and over-wintering, breeding waders, breeding passerines, over-wintering peregrines and short-eared owls, hunting for barn owls, buzzards and kestrels which breed nearby and are generally now another important part of the group of pools and wetlands along Druridge Bay.
It took a couple of days to get certain information out of the planning department, who were really not helpful. Then on Friday we started firing off detailed objections to all members of the Planning Committee, the head of Planning, posting objections on the relevant bit of the council website, contacting our councillor (who it turns out had also been deliberately excluded from information) and the like, as do a couple more of our neighbours.
First thing this morning, which is the day before this proposal was due before the committee, I was informed that the application was withdrawn...
Moral of story: making objections to iffy planning proposals can work.
Last Tuesday we were made aware of a planning proposal for a 950 pitch caravan park, 400m away from our house, around some new-ish lakes on an old opencast mining site (for the Northumberland and Newcastle members of the forum, I'm talking about the Widdrington Moor lakes), which had been in since November last year, but about which the council had deliberately decided NOT to inform locals directly. These lakes have come to support quite a lot of waterfowl, breeding, passage and over-wintering, breeding waders, breeding passerines, over-wintering peregrines and short-eared owls, hunting for barn owls, buzzards and kestrels which breed nearby and are generally now another important part of the group of pools and wetlands along Druridge Bay.
It took a couple of days to get certain information out of the planning department, who were really not helpful. Then on Friday we started firing off detailed objections to all members of the Planning Committee, the head of Planning, posting objections on the relevant bit of the council website, contacting our councillor (who it turns out had also been deliberately excluded from information) and the like, as do a couple more of our neighbours.
First thing this morning, which is the day before this proposal was due before the committee, I was informed that the application was withdrawn...
Moral of story: making objections to iffy planning proposals can work.
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