Recently I met Cowling Action Group, a dedicated group of Chorley residents campaigning against the decision by our Labour-run Council to approve a new traveller site on Cowling Road.
Excellent work by Cowling Action Group shows that the cost of putting down enough tarmac to make the site accessible could see the total bill far exceed the stated cost of £500,000. Worse still, driving a new access road through this strategic site could result in the loss or sterilisation of precious employment land, set aside for business growth.
Existing businesses, not least the excellent Spinners Arms, would face real difficulties, as has been well documented in this paper. The attractiveness of the site to quality housing developers could also be permanently blighted by the plans.
Cowling Road was chosen by the Labour Council after a consultation, at the outset of which the Labour Council Leader said that Cowling Road was already identified as a preferred option. Surprise surprise, submissions to the consultation did not change the Council’s mind, which looks suspiciously like a case of starting with the answer and working backwards through the question.
It has not escaped anyone’s attention that a leading alternative site is in the ward of the Council Leader, Alistair Bradley.
Labour has known for many years that there is an established need for a travellers site in Chorley. But instead of Labour dealing with this through the Local Plan, it has fallen to the Planning Inspector to order them to sort it out. This suits Labour fine, as they seek to paint a decision by an external regulator as a proxy decision of the coalition government.
This whole fiasco is a shameless case of local government mismanagement and of Chorley Labour putting politics ahead of people.
Rob Loughenbury
Prospective Conservative MP for Chorley