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“It’s farcical” - activist Stephen Picot
Blunder wall!
Exclusive by Jennifer Williams4/ 6/2008
STOCKPORT Council wasted £11,000 of local taxpayers’ money erecting a huge fence that broke its own planning rules - before tearing it down weeks later.
The authority made its blunder after police raised concerns about car crime at a car park in Marple Bridge.
In response, the Council decided to build a two metre fence around the land next to the Midland Inn on Brabyns Brow - but failed to consult its own planning department.
The fence turned out to break the Council’s own rules on building in a conservation area, so they pulled it down.
To add to the red faces, the police vehicle crime information which had prompted the fence to be built in the first place turned out to be incorrect.
In fact there had never been any need for a fence at all!
Curious Marple Bridge resident Andrew George reported the disappearing fence to his local councillor, and was stunned when he found out the story behind it.
He said: "When I went past it last weekend they were taking it down, so I emailed my councillor and she passed on my query to the Council.
"It turned out they hadn’t realised it was a conservation area and hadn’t given themselves planning permission.
"So they told themselves off and took it down.
"I thought, wow, that’s really stupid. It must have been 200 or 300 feet of shiny new green fence - what an absolute waste of our money."
Stephen Picot, a Stockport activist in the Taxpayers’ Alliance, added: "I would regard it as farcical.
"These people don’t realise they need to check the relevant legislation. We assume when they do these things that they know what they’re doing but very often they don’t."
The costly fence has now been put in storage for use at a later date, and Mr George’s councillor, Shan Alexander, said she hoped such mistakes would not be repeated.
Also responding to Mr George’s query, Stockport Council’s Head of Traffic Services, Ian Thompson, said: "It would appear that the original crime figures from the police weren’t as accurate as they should have been, and subsequent analysis of the figures for this car park were actually a lot lower and a fence should not have been recommended by them for this particular location."
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6/06/2008 at 17:25
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