[Acrylic-bob]

I received a letter from Lancashire County Council this week, which was nice! I am always pleased when the people who help themselves to my hard earned money deign to acknowledge my existence and their duty to represent my opinion.

The occaision of the letter was a planning proposal, the Sender was a person who signs himself Robert Hope and describes himself as a Planning Officer.

"I have advertised the proposal in the local newspaper and posted a notice on the site," he helpfully informed me, and continued, "but I am contacting you personally to request your views." Which would have been more believable had it not been for the fact that he addressed me not by my given name, which Lancs C.C. appear to have no difficulty with when it comes to asking me for money, but as "The Owner/Occupier" which is how they prefer to address me on all other occaisions.

The subject of the planning proposal on which Mr Hope is anxious to seek my opinion is as follows:

"Proposal: The development of a waste management facility including a residual waste transfer building a recyclate handling plant a mechanical biological treatment plant in vessel green waste composting plant and the development of offices and access road associated landscaping and ancilliary works
Location: Site of former huncoat power station huncoat and land to the west of the a56 near huncoat"

The punctuation, or lack of it, is accurate. I have ommitted the fact that the quoted sentence is composed entirely in uppercase characters since it might be considered that I was shouting.

This is the Plan which will see Huncoat sandwiched between a landfill site, which has recently been given permission to operate for another forty years, and a massive waste processing sitewhich will be open from 7am - 9pm Monday to Saturday and 9.30am - 5pm on Sundays and which will receive an estimated 544 heavy goods vehicles per day.

This is the Plan which Jean Battle, responding to accusations of County Hall High-handedness a month ago, assured her constituents was most definitely not a "done deal".

This is also the plan which, unless the residents of Hyndburn in general and Huncoat in particular object to in the strongest terms imaginable, will be rubber stamped by Lancashire County Council next month.

You may be certain that I shall be taking full advantage Mr Hope's invitation to comment on the proposal and I would strongly suggest that unless members wish to see our borough turned into the dustbin of Lancashire that they also take this opportunity to make their objections heard.

Mr Hope helpfully includes in his letter details of how opinions and objections may be lodged:

By letter to:
Stuart Perigo,
Development Control Group Head,
Planning Service,
PO Box 9, Guild House,
Cross Street,
Preston, PR1 8RD

By Fax to:
01772 533898

By Email
A proforma may be found at www.lancsdevelopment.com (though when I tried to access this site this morning it was not responding).

Alternatively you may try [email protected]

The closing date for objections is 1st September 2005.

Write soon!