Post by Mitch on Feb 10, 2006 13:45:58 GMT
BACK TO THE FUTURE
By Marcus Johnstone
(The Citizen/Lancs Evening Telegraph Weekly Newspaper, Thursday, 23rd April, 1992)
Historic Towneley Park may soon be changing with the times and moving into the twenty first century. A working party has been established to look at how the park should be developed into the next century.
Its members are quick to stress that none of the history or heritage associated with the park and Towneley Hall will alter.
And they say every effort will be made to find out what the people of Burnley want from Towneley Park whose history stretches back hundreds of years into the era before the industrial revolution.
Jane Yates, marketing officer with Burnley’s economic development unit, says people should not be scared off by the word ‘developed’.
‘By developed of course, we mean sympathetically and practically so that the the park remains in keeping with its era and all the history associated with the hall’, she said.
The working group is looking at issues including planning, the environment and Towneley’s natural history.
Other issues which are being put under the microscope by the working party are improvements to highways and better sports facilities at Towneley.
Added Jane Yates: ‘We want to ensure that Towneley Park stays true to its historical background.
But we also want it to be used to its fullest potential by Burnley people and by travelling tourists’.
In an effort to ensure that the public gets a say, members of the working party are planning a public meeting at the end of May.
DISCUSSED
The proposals which are being put forward will be formally unveiled at the meeting and assurances have been given that ideas for the park’s future will be fully discussed.
After the meeting has been held, a draft plan to take Towneley into the next century will be drawn up.
-----------------------------------------------------
Letters week ending January 6th 2006 (Burnley Express)
Fight to save these sites
- I WAS disappointed to read Coun. Stuart Caddy's letter in the Express regarding Building Schools for the Future.
Towneley Park is too important to the people of Burnley to be used as a political football for scoring party points. This is why I appealed to all Burnley borough councillors to show their backbone and stand up for Burnley against Lancashire County Council's plans to build Unity College (Towneley School) on lower Towneley Playing Fields.
The county council is applying to itself for outline planning permission for the whole of lower Towneley playing fields (15.8 hectares) to build a "two to three-storey building to accommodate 1,050 pupils … As well as providing a Learning Support Centre and City Learning Centre for the local community … The improvement of the existing sports pitches, new tennis and games courts. Due to its location it is proposed that the floor level of the new school building be raised above the surrounding land to reduce flood risk."
We welcome this chance to improve education for the future in Burnley but question the wisdom of three of the county council's chosen sites by rushing headlong into this. Obviously our main concern is with Towneley Park.
The proposed site is a large open space which is well used by the local community of Fulledge and Brunshaw, as well as those preferring to walk up to Towneley Hall through countryside rather than along the road. Children simply run and play, teenagers stroll and play cricket, football etc, while adults walk, enjoy the countryside/wildlife and exercise their dogs all within easy reach of extensive built-up areas. The county council maintains that losing this site will not be detrimental as it will return the current site to parkland. However, the current site is a narrow strip along the roadside and would not have the recreational advantages of the proposed site.
Also, the proposed site is between two marshland areas connected by a ditch which feeds the pond. There is abundant wildlife to be found here, including reed bunting, water voles, heron, coot and kingfisher, all of which would be disturbed not simply by the building but long term by 1,050 young people coming and going to the school four times a day.
Another concern is the increased possibility of flooding that disturbing the water table would have on nearby houses. The proposed site for building the school is on a marshy slope above surrounding houses in a flood plain, the county council's own surveyors said anyone would be mad to build on there. While the current site is also on the flood plain this has already been managed for many years and is below the surrounding houses.
Then there is the effect of increased traffic on the Fulledge area, especially Mitella Street, Culshaw Street, Mary Towneley Fold and Morse Street. The access road for the proposed school is via a new bridge and access road with a turning circle off Towneley Holmes Road. There does not appear to be any parking provision for dropping off and collecting the young people and as Holmes Road is set to become a clearway under the Heritage Lottery Fund plans with a traffic warden employed to enforce this, it is logical to expect more traffic on the surrounding streets of Fulledge to drop off students at the two proposed pedestrian access points in Darnley Street and Mary Towneley Fold. These streets are already unsuitable for the amount of traffic requiring access to local schools, houses and businesses and it would only be a matter of time before there is a serious accident besides the inconvenience to local residents.
The county council keeps repeating that there is no alternative site and the school cannot be built on the current site as the playing fields must be adjacent to the school buildings, however it proposes to build at least one of the other schools on a split site. It also says this would cause too much disruption for students, but again it proposes building on existing sites at other schools.
This is yet another issue when the people of Burnley need to stand up and be counted. Please take a few minutes as a New Year resolution to write a letter of opposition to this planning application.
l Write to Lancashire County Council Planning Department, PO Box 9, Guild House, Cross Street, Preston, PR1 8RD before January 13th explaining all the reasons why you are opposed to the plans;
l Write to John Prescott, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU before January 20th, explaining your opposition and asking for a public inquiry so Burnley people can be sure the decision is taken independently reflecting the will of Burnley, not by the county council granting planning permission to itself;
l Contact your borough councillors asking them to ask for a public inquiry and write to Burnley Borough Council Planning Department, in Parker Lane (as soon as possible as the Development Control Committee meeting to consider this planning application is on January 12th) stating your objections.
Let us show Lancashire County Council how important Towneley Park is to the people of Burnley.
MRS MARGARET NELSON
Chairman, Fulledge Action Community Team
See Also:
www.burnleytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=12&ArticleID=1313596
By Marcus Johnstone
(The Citizen/Lancs Evening Telegraph Weekly Newspaper, Thursday, 23rd April, 1992)
Historic Towneley Park may soon be changing with the times and moving into the twenty first century. A working party has been established to look at how the park should be developed into the next century.
Its members are quick to stress that none of the history or heritage associated with the park and Towneley Hall will alter.
And they say every effort will be made to find out what the people of Burnley want from Towneley Park whose history stretches back hundreds of years into the era before the industrial revolution.
Jane Yates, marketing officer with Burnley’s economic development unit, says people should not be scared off by the word ‘developed’.
‘By developed of course, we mean sympathetically and practically so that the the park remains in keeping with its era and all the history associated with the hall’, she said.
The working group is looking at issues including planning, the environment and Towneley’s natural history.
Other issues which are being put under the microscope by the working party are improvements to highways and better sports facilities at Towneley.
Added Jane Yates: ‘We want to ensure that Towneley Park stays true to its historical background.
But we also want it to be used to its fullest potential by Burnley people and by travelling tourists’.
In an effort to ensure that the public gets a say, members of the working party are planning a public meeting at the end of May.
DISCUSSED
The proposals which are being put forward will be formally unveiled at the meeting and assurances have been given that ideas for the park’s future will be fully discussed.
After the meeting has been held, a draft plan to take Towneley into the next century will be drawn up.
-----------------------------------------------------
Letters week ending January 6th 2006 (Burnley Express)
Fight to save these sites
- I WAS disappointed to read Coun. Stuart Caddy's letter in the Express regarding Building Schools for the Future.
Towneley Park is too important to the people of Burnley to be used as a political football for scoring party points. This is why I appealed to all Burnley borough councillors to show their backbone and stand up for Burnley against Lancashire County Council's plans to build Unity College (Towneley School) on lower Towneley Playing Fields.
The county council is applying to itself for outline planning permission for the whole of lower Towneley playing fields (15.8 hectares) to build a "two to three-storey building to accommodate 1,050 pupils … As well as providing a Learning Support Centre and City Learning Centre for the local community … The improvement of the existing sports pitches, new tennis and games courts. Due to its location it is proposed that the floor level of the new school building be raised above the surrounding land to reduce flood risk."
We welcome this chance to improve education for the future in Burnley but question the wisdom of three of the county council's chosen sites by rushing headlong into this. Obviously our main concern is with Towneley Park.
The proposed site is a large open space which is well used by the local community of Fulledge and Brunshaw, as well as those preferring to walk up to Towneley Hall through countryside rather than along the road. Children simply run and play, teenagers stroll and play cricket, football etc, while adults walk, enjoy the countryside/wildlife and exercise their dogs all within easy reach of extensive built-up areas. The county council maintains that losing this site will not be detrimental as it will return the current site to parkland. However, the current site is a narrow strip along the roadside and would not have the recreational advantages of the proposed site.
Also, the proposed site is between two marshland areas connected by a ditch which feeds the pond. There is abundant wildlife to be found here, including reed bunting, water voles, heron, coot and kingfisher, all of which would be disturbed not simply by the building but long term by 1,050 young people coming and going to the school four times a day.
Another concern is the increased possibility of flooding that disturbing the water table would have on nearby houses. The proposed site for building the school is on a marshy slope above surrounding houses in a flood plain, the county council's own surveyors said anyone would be mad to build on there. While the current site is also on the flood plain this has already been managed for many years and is below the surrounding houses.
Then there is the effect of increased traffic on the Fulledge area, especially Mitella Street, Culshaw Street, Mary Towneley Fold and Morse Street. The access road for the proposed school is via a new bridge and access road with a turning circle off Towneley Holmes Road. There does not appear to be any parking provision for dropping off and collecting the young people and as Holmes Road is set to become a clearway under the Heritage Lottery Fund plans with a traffic warden employed to enforce this, it is logical to expect more traffic on the surrounding streets of Fulledge to drop off students at the two proposed pedestrian access points in Darnley Street and Mary Towneley Fold. These streets are already unsuitable for the amount of traffic requiring access to local schools, houses and businesses and it would only be a matter of time before there is a serious accident besides the inconvenience to local residents.
The county council keeps repeating that there is no alternative site and the school cannot be built on the current site as the playing fields must be adjacent to the school buildings, however it proposes to build at least one of the other schools on a split site. It also says this would cause too much disruption for students, but again it proposes building on existing sites at other schools.
This is yet another issue when the people of Burnley need to stand up and be counted. Please take a few minutes as a New Year resolution to write a letter of opposition to this planning application.
l Write to Lancashire County Council Planning Department, PO Box 9, Guild House, Cross Street, Preston, PR1 8RD before January 13th explaining all the reasons why you are opposed to the plans;
l Write to John Prescott, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU before January 20th, explaining your opposition and asking for a public inquiry so Burnley people can be sure the decision is taken independently reflecting the will of Burnley, not by the county council granting planning permission to itself;
l Contact your borough councillors asking them to ask for a public inquiry and write to Burnley Borough Council Planning Department, in Parker Lane (as soon as possible as the Development Control Committee meeting to consider this planning application is on January 12th) stating your objections.
Let us show Lancashire County Council how important Towneley Park is to the people of Burnley.
MRS MARGARET NELSON
Chairman, Fulledge Action Community Team
See Also:
www.burnleytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=12&ArticleID=1313596