Residents objecting to plans for Spiritualist church in St Annes bungalow
“The applicants have had four months to consider this. We as residents have had just three weeks to respond.”
A group of residents in St Annes are unhappy over plans to open a Spiritualist church in a residential bungalow.
They fear that if the church opens, it will lead to many more visitors than would be normal for a private abode, creating potential parking problems and traffic issues.
But Val Williams, an ordained minister with the Spiritualists’ National Union, said there would less people coming to sessions than people seemed to believe, and she said the church wanted to work with the residents.
The application, which went before Fylde Council’s planning committee on Wednesday (June 24), was for a change of use from a dwellinghouse at 454 Clifton Drive North to a mixed used development comprising a place of worship and one self-contained dwelling.
There would be a single storey rear extension, raising of the roof height and insertion of new windows and doors into the existing garage to allow the conversion to the self-contained dwelling.
The property is a detached bungalow on the corner with Todmorden Road.
What they said
Among the speakers at the meeting was resident Peter Savic, who said: “My concern is that the access arrangements on the A584 (Clifton drive North ) are not safe, and not compliant with the standards Lancashire County Council normally expects.
“Clifton Drive is a busy A-road with cycle lanes in both directions. Every vehicle entering or leaving this site must cross those cycle lanes and when vehicles are waiting to exit, they will be stationary across the footpath or within the cycle lane.
“This will force cyclists into the live traffic stream, a clear and avoidable conflict point which runs directly against the principles of safe active travel.”
Mr Savic also raised concerns about queuing and obstruction of traffic.
Another speaker, resident Mike Watson, said: “The applicants have had four months to consider this. We as residents have had just three weeks to respond.”
He described the application as being more of a commercial venture than a church, relocating to a residential area with as many as 40 people coming to it at various times.
Val Williams said on behalf of the application: “I’m an ordained minister and I’ve been asked to speak by the St Annes church, which has been in the area for 50 years.
“Sadly they have never had their own building and they have been using the New Assembly Rooms at Lytham.
“We’ve even accused of being a business, not a religion, but Fleetwood, Cleveleys and Blackpool all have their own churches.
“The most people we would have would only be around 30.”
She added: “We want to work with the local community.”
Feelings were running high at the meeting and at one point the committee chairman, Cllr Gavin Harrison, ordered things to quiet down, saying: “This a planning meeting, not a piece of theatre.”
Councillors debated the application before Cllr Sandra Pitman withdrew her recommendation to refuse the application and stated she wished to propose that the item be deferred.
This was seconded by Cllr Kelly Farrington, who said clarity was needed on proposed activities at the church.
By a heavy majority, councilors voted that the application be deferred to a later, unspecified date, to allow the council to seek further information from the applicant regarding the nature of the Church activities at the building.