‘Does this village have protected status?’

Planning chiefs have been accused of doling out special treatment when it comes to discussing planning applications in a Fylde village.
Coun Tim Armit (below) has questioned whether Wrea Green has some form protected status after yet another new home plan was rejected by councillors.Coun Tim Armit (below) has questioned whether Wrea Green has some form protected status after yet another new home plan was rejected by councillors.
Coun Tim Armit (below) has questioned whether Wrea Green has some form protected status after yet another new home plan was rejected by councillors.

Coun Tim Armit made the claim after fellow members of Fylde Council’s development management committee turned down an application to build 49 new homes in Wrea Green.

The comment also came after three other proposed developments in the village were rejected in recent months.

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Coun Armit said the latest rejection would make it appear as though Wrea Green had “protected status”.

Coun Tim ArmitCoun Tim Armit
Coun Tim Armit

The latest plan, which would have seen homes built at North View Farm, off Ribby Road, in the village, had been recommended for refusal by the council’s planning officers.

But while debating the rejected plans at a meeting of the council’s development management committee, Coun Armit said: “I’m beginning to worry that it looks a lot like Wrea Green has this status in that we reject every time.

“We’re talking about putting thousands of houses in other places and I feel we’re almost getting into protected status. I think we should go against the officers here and accept this.”

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But fellow committee member Coun Maxine Chew said she was “proud” to protect the village, and save rural Fylde from turning into “an amorphous blob” like the former villages of Bispham, Layton and Marton.

She said: “I would be proud to sit here and try and protect Wrea Green from the overwhelming development that would swamp it.

“It would make it lose its character and identity.

“Do we want to be like Layton and Bispham and Marton, and allow it to become a great big amorphous mass like Blackpool?

“Unfortunately the way the Government’s forcing us, that’s the way Fylde’s becoming. When you look at that plan the people that move into these houses will never become integrated into the village.

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“We definitely must do our best to protect the individuality, character and identity of our villages.”

The plan was rejected by 13 votes to one, with Coun Armit the only member to vote in favour.

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