Why was the Go Ape plan fast-tracked?

10:00am Saturday 4th October 2008

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WE wish to register our objection to the scarring of the Lever Park, Rivington, by the Go Ape adventure course project (Chorley Council planning ref 08/00553/FUL).

We are at a loss to understand why the application was fast-tracked despite the following: 1. Government guideline instructions as to when fast-tracking is recommended and, more importantly, when it is not allowed.

2. This development does not fall intoChorley Council’s own planning guidelines.

3. In the lead-up to this application being granted, Chorley Council paperwork continually recommended that it be refused.

Why then was it granted by three councillors in a fast-track procedure?

How, despite the numerous pre-application refusals, was the plan then granted permission through delegated powers which precluded the public from getting involved?

The many reasons for our objections cannot now be raised during the planning application stage because Go Ape and United Utilities have cleverly dealt with this by quietly hiding the application in delegated powers.

However we and many other lovers of the Rivington area will not allow this subtle side-stepping of legislation to go un-noticed. Neither will we only talk amongst ourselves about what we see as the injustice of it all.

We intend to make as much noise about this as we can.

We will not go away quietly and think ‘what a shame we didn’t know what was being proposed’ before the planning application was nodded through.

It would be appreciated if Go Ape and Chorley Council would reply to this letter, giving us some reasons for the apparent circumvention of proper planning application rules — as depicted in their own and Governmental documents.

Why, also, has Go Ape or United Utilities found it necessary to fell 21 trees?

We have been told that 18 of them were diseased and required felling.

It seems amazing that those 18 were in direct line of the Go Ape project and none were apparently found to be diseased two yards either side for the whole length of it.

Fourteen of the felled trunks have been removed, despite the Go Ape website seemingly suggesting that felled trees are left to rot away.

Maybe the firms could explain the reason for this?

We further note that the Go Ape course now appears to have breached the conservation area.

We think it all beggars belief!

Mike and Gloria Wayne, Pennine Road, Horwich