Town Green Application

In October 2012 an application was lodged with the Lancashire County Council by Marsh Ward councillor Jon Barry with intention the area that the area be designated a Town Green, and thus be protected from development.

As of 2018, that application had been confirmed as ‘duly made’ - meaning that it is complies with the legal requirements and can proceed to the next stage.

The application is supported by over 100 evidence questionnaires and 30 statements of evidence from local people.

Jon Barry said: “The whole procedure is painfully slow, but we are delighted that we have cleared the first hurdle. The next step will be for a public enquiry to be held, to weigh up the evidence and arguments for and against designating the land as a Town Green.”

Further details of the application below.

Satnam (the planning consultants employed by the owners, Lune Industrial Estate Ltd) made a rebuttal of the Town Green application. We sent in a further 30 pages of evidence that rebutted their rebuttal in late 2018.

Parallel to this process, Satnam tried to get a Judicial Review of the way that the County Council handled our Town Green application. The This was scheduled for a court hearing in June 2019, but Satnam withdrew it shortly before the hearing date, in return for the County Council scheduling an inquiry date as soon as possible for the Town Green application itself. We agreed to this, and are now preparing to defend our Town Green application at a public inquiry in Lancaster Town Hall on 27-30 August 2019.

We are desperately fund-raising to pay for legal representation at this 4-day inquiry. Satnam will employ highly skilled legal experts will doubtless attempt to exploit any loophole that undermines our case, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. We must have similar legal expertise in our corner but unlike Satnam, we are reliant on crowdfunding, sponsored activities and community events to raise the cost of legal representation. Please support our appeal if you can.