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FORMBY

12 February 2020

CELEBRATING

25 YEARS

Vol 27 Issue 7

www.champnews.com

Pool bosses aim for zero carbon emissions

INSIDE THIS WEEK:

School run safety pledge gathers pace

HOUSING SCHEME BACK BEFORE THE PLANNERS

Neighbourhood Plan ‘shows its teeth’ says Parish Council boss after controversial Brackenway application fails to conform to new policies

Roads flooded by Storm Ciara STORM Ciara hit Formby at the weekend whipping up very high winds and heavy rainfall. The storm forced the closure of a number of roads in the town, disrupted travel and resulted in the cancellation of several events as well as some sporting fixtures. Church Road was badly flooded, as was Queens Road at the junction with Sealand Avenue and Sefton Road, and Deansgate Lane North in Freshfield. Merseyrail asked passengers to check before they set off if services were still running but planned engineering work on the Southport line still went ahead on Sunday with rail replacement buses in operation between Sandhills and Formby. Storm Ciara also caused damage to an animal sanctuary in Ince Blundell. Debbie Hughes from Freshfields Animal Shelter revealed that staff are now in desperate need of at least one new shelter after one in a dog exercise yard was wrecked by the winds on Sunday. To add to their woes, another shelter is now leaking because of the bad weather. Ideally, they would like new sturdy, wooden ones – or donations to save up for them.

Report by Danielle Thompson A CONTROVERSIAL housing scheme must go back to Sefton Council’s planning committee because it fails to meet Formby and Little Altcar’s recently passed Neighbourhood Plan. The Plan was passed by public referendum in October last year and came into force in November. It is now being used to assess an outline planning application which has already been approved for a major 286 home development – as it ‘does not conform’ to the Plan’s policies’. The Champion revealed in March 2019 that plans to build 286 homes on land north of Brackenway had been given the go-ahead when Sefton Council’s planning committee passed the outline application at Bootle Town Hall, with many members of the public walking out after the decision was announced. The move to send the application back to Sefton’s planners shows that

Formby Parish Council Chairman, Bob McCann

the Neighbourhood Plan is ‘beginning to show its teeth’ according to Formby Parish Council Chairman Bob McCann. A scheme for the site off the Formby Bypass, submitted by Taylor Wimpey Homes, was approved with conditions despite more than 200 letters of objection from concerned residents. Continued inside

Storm Ciara caused flooding on Church Road in Formby

THE UK’S LARGEST LETTERBOX CIRCULATION BY AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER! 164,824

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