,30 Clitheroe Advertise&Times, July 29th, 2004


v .www.clitheroetoday.co.uk


. .Clitheroe 422324 (Editorial), 422323 (Advertising), Burnley 422331 (Classified)


JfiiitKefoe 422^24 (Edit6rial),-X223'23(Advertising)';Bufni4y4i23ii’ (Classified)


■l \Vwwxl ithefdetdday.cdiuk Letters to the Editor \ \ rite to: The Editor, Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, 3 King Street, Clitheroe BB72EW Editorial e-mail: vivien.meath@eastlancsnews.co.uk |— Brockhall: response


from a councillor MR HITMAN makes his usual strong sales pitch for the latest planning appli­ cation at Brockhall, but his attempt to depict me as the only or main impedi­ ment to progress and enlightenment is wide of the mark. As a councillor, I have always tried to


represent the broad views of the local people who elected me and of the parish council on which I have served for 13 years. My main concern has been to try and prevent wholesale depar­ tures from the original development plan for Brockhall that was agreed in 1995. As examples, the original plan said:


by Vivien Meath


L IV E an d work homes could be th e way fo rward a s th e Govern­ ment explores ways of cutting traf­ fic movements and conserving fuel. Ribble Valley property developer


Gerald Hitman is one of those at the forefront of the nationwide initiative and hopes to be able to build 14 such buildings at Brockhall Village.- From figures it appears that 72% of


businesses already operating in the Ribble Valley incorporate between one and four employees. Nationally, the fastest growing group in the working population (of the United Kingdom) are those who work from home.


AN example of the architect’s design for livc/work units with the work unit at rear of garage space beyond the courtyard In preparing to submit the plans,


th e ap p lic an ts discovered th a t in excess of 24% of households within Brockhall Village have family mem­ bers who work partly from home and 17% ru n businesses purely from home. In a further survey, existing home working residents were contact­ ed and an advertisement was placed to identify those who would be interested in a live/jvork development. The response was amazing, with 18


people interviewed on the first day. There is currently a waiting list of those interested, if the application is approved and development goes ahead. The majority were already living in Brockhall Village, but wanted to


expand the home working side of their businesses. Represented were financial services, commercial vehicle conver­ sions and brokerage, plumbing busi­ ness, chartered surveyors, kitchen business, contract flooring, property rentals, design specialists, cleaning contractors, classic car rentals, IT con­ sultants and clothes designers. Many hours of driving time were


identified as savings and comments such as: "Our business is busting into family life a t the moment. We use an upstairs bedroom as the office and need something more professional", were typical. A joint planning application made


by Brockhall Village Residents' Asso­ ciation and Brockhall Village Ltd


incorporates the homes, as well as 24 apartments, the design for which is illus trated below. The architect is Frank Lyons, of Plymouth. Eminent in his profession, he has won a number of awards and was fourth in the RIBA competition to design the Old Zoo, the contemporary house built for Mr and Mrs Hitman. The application would complete the


village. Dereliction and building works have been part of village life for more than a decade and residents want to see it ended. "We are beginning to get heartily sick of building," said the resi­ dents' association chairman. The application provides a more


generous site for the village hall than that originally proposed. There will be


no need to fell protected trees and enough land to accommodate open-air activities. Brockhall Village Ltd would build the hall and transfer it to the res­ idents' association before any of the 3£ homes were occupied. Two public open spaces would he


laid out and planted and transferred tc the residents' association. Original plans allowed for the devel­


opment of 38 homes as well as conven­ tional factories and office blocks, for which, says the applicants, there is now no forseeable demand. Most villagers feel that the presence


of such units would spoil the character of the village. The current application provides for a swimming and gymnasi­ um club which will be owned by Brock­ hall Village Ltd and run by a former Blackburn Rovers' player. Membership would be open to residents and others. With 14 of the 38 homes proposed with an office annexe, the potential for another 56 jobs has been identified. The applicants say the application


will meet the borough council's aspira­ tion to bring employment opportuni­ ties to the village in an imaginative, innovative and realistic way. Instead ol leaving land idle, ostensibly for office blocks and factories which are unlikely to materialise, i t will provide accom­ modation for 56 actual jobs, in addition to jobs in the gymnasium and swim­ ming pool complex. The application is expected to be


determined in September/October and, according to Mr Hitman, if permission is granted, work could be complete within 21 months to two-and-a-hall years.


Sheep dip: warning follows pollution disaster


FARMERS and contractors using sheep dip are being urged to take extra care following a serious pollution incident. Around 6,000 rare white-


clawed crayfish in Cumbria's River Mint, near Kendal, were wiped out on June 5th by a toxic, pollutant that the Environment Agency strongly believes to be sheep dip. White-clawed crayfish are


already scarce in the UK, and the loss of such a significant number is a setback for conser­ vation. Sheep dip is extremely toxic to aquatic life and can have a


devastating effect if it is allowed to get into rivers and streams. However, there are many sim­


ple measures tha t farmers can take to avoid pollution inci­ dents.


Before dipping: • Obtain an authorisation


from the Environment Agency to dispose of used sheep dip to land - even if there is only a small amount of dip left. ® Make sure tha t dip baths


don't leak by filling them with clean water and leaving i t overnight. The water needn't be wasted as it can be used to make up the dip solution.


® If the dip bath has a drain


hole, seal it permanently. ® Avoid dipping when wet


weather is forecast. As well as increasing pollution risks, it can also make dipping less effective. During and after dipping: © Make sure that the concen­


trate and spillages are contained within an area that drains back into the dip bath. ® Use only authorised prod­


ucts and follow the manufactur­ er's instructions. © Hold all sheep in drain pens


until they have stopped drip­ ping, and make sure th a t all


drainage runs back into the dip bath.


® Keep sheep in a fenced-off


area away from watercourses and wetlands until their fleeces are dry - overnight a t least. Even the drips from a sheep’s fleece can be highly polluting. ® Do not spread used dip on


land that is close to any water­ course, or on land tjiat is water­ logged, steeply sloping, poorly drained or has cracked soil. Clive Gaskell, the Environ­


ment Agency's strategic envi­ ronmental planning manager, said: “Most farmers and con­ tractors are very co-operative,


but there are still instances where guidance isn't followed. “Lab tests will soon confirm


whether sheep dip was the cause of the recent incident on the River Mint, but we've seen a number of pollution incidents from sheep dip already this year. That's why we're urging farmers to carry out sheep-dipping with great care.We investigate all reports of pollution, and harm to the environment can result in prosecution.'


“Farmers can always contact the Agency for information and


advice by calling us on 08708 506506.”


Clitheroe Bridge Club winners


WINNERS a t Clitheroe Bridge Club on Monday were: NS Mr and Mrs R. Ward with Mr C. Pollard and Mrs J. Martindale second. EW Mrs J. Bowker and Mrs


K. Higson with Mrs I. Park and Mrs D. Blake second. On Thursday winners were


NS Mr G. Pollard and Mr R. Ward with Mr L. Wilkinson and Mrs J. Gilmour second. EW Mrs D. Atkinson and


Mrs D. Blake with Mr R. Bailey and Mr E. Ormand second.


WMJ


“The open land setting of the site must be protected and enhanced”: “employ­ ment opportunities lost as a result of th e closure of Brockhall must be replaced in any redevelopment/re-use of the site”; “the central administrative block should be protected and re-used if possible”; “existing public rights of way within the site should be protect­ ed and public access improved”; “rede­ velopment should not place undue pressure on local services and facili­ ties”; “a new access route to the site will be required directly from the A59”; “large scale residential redevelopment is not envisaged for the site”. All these aspirations or variations on them have been written into the legal agreements with RVBC th a t the developer has signed up to over the years. But com­ pare this with what has actually hap­ pened at Brockhall and you wonder why Mr Hitman should ever have been concerned at my occasional, but clearly ineffectual, opposition to his plans! He appears to have taken all the “good bits”, but consistently found reasons why the obligations should not be ful­ filled. On his latest set of proposals, my


views largely follow those made by the parish council about a similar applica­ tion in March 2002. The application seeks to link five separate elements in order that the natural sympathy which planning committee and the general public might have towards the Brock­ hall community’s aspiration for better recreational facilities will assist him in a move to build more housing on areas of the site that have been specifically designated for employment use. • Some of our reasons for opposing "live-work" units then were:


® We remained unconvinced that


sufficient effort has been made to mar­ ket the employment areas within Brockhall. There is little evidence for it.


® Since we were told 40% of resi­


dents already work from home either full or part-time, this is evidence of the fact that many of the houses currently on site are already large enough to sup­ port this type of activity. 9 If new, even larger, houses were


built to facilitate working a t home, what guarantee could there be that they would be used as live-work units? Would people be expected to move out if their business ended or contracted? ®If they were all built to a fairly


standard size, would this not tend to conflict with the fact that businesses tend to grow at different rates? Would it not make more sense to provide sepa­ rate office space on site so th a t more people could use this and perhaps share certain common facilities? Nearly everyone in Ribble Valley


agrees that this area needs more afford­ able homes, not properties th a t will probably cost over £400,000. To conclude, I am more than happy


to support plans for a village hall, swimming pool, gymnasium, formal garden etc, but not the application for more large houses in the employment area. The ploy of linking these ele­ ments should be resisted and I trust the council’s planners will hold firm to the last agreement Mr Hitman signed.


GRAHAM SOWTEB, Parish and borough councillor, Whalley Old Road, Langho


Many people are


unhappy about site FURTHER to Mr Hitman’s letter last week, I should like to stress that criti­ cal comments about development at Brockhall are not restricted to Coun. Graham Sowter, but are widely shared by all members of Billington and Langho Parish Council. With the Prince of Wales joining in,


it appears we are in good company. Contrary to Mr Hitman’s belief that


he is responsible for planning a wonder­ ful village, I rather think th a t if the concensus of opinion was taken throughout the Ribble Valley, he would find that people consider that very lit­ tle, if anything, has made any contri­


bution to the infrastructure of our val­ ley. I doubt if the sort of development we


now have at Brockhall would have been allowed in any of our larger neighbour­ ing authorities.


CARL ROSS, Ribble Valley Borough Councillor, Calder Avenue, Billington


GP opt-out: lives


will be at risk I WAS disappointed, disgusted yet interested to read your story regarding Ribble Valley GPs opting out of the emergency service presently provided by them for residents of the Ribble Val­ ley due to their new contract negotia­ tions. Disappointed, as I am under the


impression th a t these same GPs1 salaries are somehow connected to the number of patients they are expected to care for and who, in many cases, rely heavily on them for their support and well-being. It appears that as they have not been


able to negotiate a better deal, they have, along with the Government, abdicated their responsibility and put the lives of local residents - particularly the elderly and infirm - in jeopardy. Can I suggest to Dr Crowther, who


suggested th a t some GPs might join the Medical Co-op later, after a "much deserved rest" and "when the honey­ moon period is over", that for the thou­ sands of unpaid carers nationally there aren’t any honeymoon periods. My analogy is th a t these so-called


responsible people are “biting off the hand that feeds them.” Regarding GPs from Blackburn,


Darvven and Burnley taking over, this has hardly been thought out. Emergencies don’t always happen on


main roads through Langho, Whalley and Clitheroe, but can, and do, happen in Holden Top, Bashall Eaves and Slaidbum. There is also the shortage and


turnover of GPs to be considered, or will they opt-out when they get lost in fog on Waddington Fell answering an emergency? The observation of Mr Cummings,


who took up two lines of your story just to announce his job title, that GPs could be anywhere in the Ribble Valley in 30 minutes was patronising in view


WHEN the time comes I will be encour­ aging people in Clitheroe to vote for a constitutional treaty that, will simplify the way in which Europe is run, strengthen the role of national parlia­ ments, and make future reform of the Common Agricultural Policy much less difficult. That task started to look easier at the


first post-election meeting of the Euro­ pean Parliament when one MEP from the UK Independence Party made a fool of himself - “women should clean behind the fridge more often” - and it emerged th a t another UKIP man was facing fraud allegations in a British court. Then Tony Blair nominated Peter Man- delson as a European Commissioner. Mandelson may have many abilities,


but he is a master of spin not of trust. His appointment plays into the hands of the Europhobes. I t is a shame that the announcement came in the same week that MEPs voted to have as the next president of the European Commission the Portugese prime minister Jose Manuel Barroso; a man who has


of my previous paragraph, and 30 min­ utes is not acceptable in emergencies. I am convinced the proposed system will be chaotic and people will over-ride


•it and call 999, as your article conveys, thereby putting more pressure on that service. Finally, the involvement of the PCT


does nothing to inspire me when I read many trusts are reverting to matron-led hospitals. To Ribble Valley residents I ask


“Will Clitheroe hospital be next or the re-location of Clitheroe Health Cen­ tre?”


A CONCERNED RESIDENT Name and address supplied, but withheld


PM missed out on a great opportunity


impressed me as being head and shoul­ ders in calibre above the ranks of most politicians here. If only Tony Blair had taken th e


opportunity to nominate a woman. Alter 30 years of EU membership there has yet to be a woman commissioner from Britain. ■ I t ’s a glass ceiling th a t should long since have been shattered, and for the prime minister to have nominated a woman of child-bearing age would have sent a useful message to UKIP about the need for EU policies that prevent dis­ crimination!


CHRIS DAVIES Liberal Democrat MEP for the North West


No pride in this poor


postal service CAN someone please explain what is happening to our postal service? It has become a disgrace. I live at 6 Church Brow Gardens and


Dr and Mrs McKean live at 6 Church Brow. Practically every other day our mail is being delivered in error to each other's houses. Surely postmen and women are


assessed as to whether they can read before they are offered the important job of delivering mail.My late husband and I owned and ran Salford Post Office in the late ’80s. At that time I was proud to be associated with the Royal Mail, but I doubt if I would be today.


RETIRED SUB-POSTMISTRESS, Marlene Richards, Church Brow Gardens, Clitheroe


Your letters. . .


9 The Editor welcomes letters on any subject, but correspondents are remind­ ed that contributions may be edited or condensed, must not exceed 350 words and should reach us by noon on Tuesday. Letters with noms de plume arc now


only accepted for publication if the editor agrees that there is a valid reason for the writer's identity to be withheld. Letters can be sent by post to the


Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, 3 King Street, Clitheroe BB7 2EW, via e-mail to vivien.meath@eastIancsnews.co.uk, via fax to 01200 443467 or texted to 07799696117. Letters submitted by any of these


methods must, however, include the writ­ er's name and full postal address.


Ramblers met with sunny weather


AN application to build a three- s to re y house w ith a detached garage and a stable block contain­ ing six loose boxes and a tack room in Brockhall Village, Old Langho, has been given th e go-ahead by Ribble Valley planners. The building, situated at the for­


mer sewage tre a tm en t works to th e north western corner of the former hospital grounds and close to the Blackburn Rovers training ground, would provide for a nine bedroom u n it with a swimming pool and various other rooms. The area is listed as a Biological


Heritage Site and included in a Tree Preservation Order because of the surrounding woodland. No concerns were raised by Lan­


cashire County Council, the Envi­ ronment Agency or nearby resi­ dents regarding the development, however, the parish council strong­ ly opposed the application and argued th a t the building did not come across as a single dwelling unit, but more as a property for multiple-occupation or for institu­ tional or commercial use. Ribble Valley Council’s chief


planning officer, Mr John Macholc, explained th a t he was satisfied that although the propos­ al is large, it would not necessarily be seen as an alien feature in the landscape and would be well screened throughout the majority


of the year. He also explained that as the vil­


lage is classed as an Edwardian site, the building will be construct­ ed with red brick and slate roof. During the Planning and Devel­


opment Committee meeting held earlier this month, Coun. Frank Dyson (Clitheroe) was particular­ ly concerned about the retention of existing trees surrounding the development. Permission was allowed for the


scheme to go-ahead on the condi­ tio n s th a t specific samples of walling and roofing materials will be su bm it ted and approved in w ritin g by th e local plan n in g authority and inspectors will once again look into preserving the sur­ rounding woodland as much as possible.


FARLETON FELL is a prominent lime­ stone hill which many people view from the M6, but fewer people climb. Twenty seven ramblers set off from


King's Bridge near the hamlet of Farleton on a fine and sunny day. They tackled the steep slope to the sum­


mit where they were rewarded by extensive views and limestone pavement all around them. An early lunch was taken at the summit


to take advantage of the views and the sun­ shine. The walk continued through the delight­


ful scenery of Newbiggin Crags to the minor road which divides Farleton Fell from Hutton Roof. After a short stretch on the road, they


joined the bridleway to Burton passing the nature reserve on Hutton Roof. A short break for ice-cream was taken in


Burton and a minor road followed over the motorway to the Lancaster to Kendal Canal, which was opened in 1819. This stretch of the canal is hardly used


as the canal is blocked by the motorway north of Holme. I t provides a peaceful rural backwater


with wild flowers and water plants. Two families of cygnets were proudly shown off by their parents. The canal is raised up above the surrounding countryside to give views of the hamlet of Holme Mills. After passing the attractive canalside gardens of Holme and the place were the motorway blocks the canal, a short field path brought the party back to the parking place. The next.walk is on Saturday. Meet at


Chester Avenue car park a t 9 a.m. for Ingleborough via Park Fell (train from Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Ribblehead). Inquiries 01254 822851.


' Ciith'erqe^Adve'rMsfer ^ tfrties, July29th; 2004 ’’31


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