The land, most of which is owned by ICI, has been allocated in the Cheshire Structure Plan for a Regional Warehousing and Distribution 'Park' and Vale Royal Borough Council's planners have gone along with this proposal in their review of the Borough's own Local Plan now undergoing a Public Enquiry.

Although the panel appointed by the Secretary of State (John Prescott) which examined the Cheshire Structure Plan proposals recommended the deletion of the warehousing proposal from the Structure Plan, the county council has refused to go along with the recommendation - and it is still retained - albeit with some modified wording of the policy and its reasons - officially described as the Draft Revisions.

You, the public, still have a chance to defeat the policy (called IND 9 in the Structure Plan) by getting one of the official comment forms from any of the County Council's local offices, VR Borough Council offices, the Information Centre in Northwich Shopping Precinct, or any Library - and registering your personal objection in a few simple words - and sending it off to Cheshire County Council. Never can the price of an envelope and a second class stamp have so much hanging on it.

Although I do not live anywhere near Lostock Gralam, I am using a lot of my personal time and meagre resources to get this policy defeated.

I do not believe that one can win against an organisation with ICI's resources without putting an alternative, viable use which can give the Enquiry Inspector something against which to measure and compare ICI's and both council's proposals.

I am very confident indeed that my own proposals would be something of which the Borough could become extremely proud in a few short years from now.

I have to say that signing a Petition of Objection - which is what the Parish Council has organised - is NOT the way to bring pressure to bear on the county's officials and councillors. 5000 individuals sending an objection in to Policy (IND 9) being retained will have far more impact than one petition with 5000 names on it.

Can I, through your newspaper, ask as many people as possible to head my appeal and get a comment form from one of the sources mentioned above, and state in a few words that they object to Policy IND 9 being retained in the Structure Plan.

The closing date for comments is October 13 - but don't wait, act now! You don't have to live in Lostock Gralam to object.

Geoff Hayes

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.