A Community Success!

Posted By: William Hobhouse
Date Posted: 23/01/2009

Not every week does a community achieve a real success. Sudden has. As the Sudden Junction was nearing completion, on one corner appeared two large size advertisement hoardings. What was intended for this corner was an acoustic fence and some trees.
The Council’s environmental plans, planned over a couple of years with councillors and residents, were mothballed without the change ever being discussed with anyone. Apparently, discussions started as to whether the Council would work together with the private landowner to build jointly on Council and private land.
The locals just didn’t want the hoardings. They were out of character with the area, they said, intrusive, ugly and erected without any planning permission.
The local Councillors accepted these concerns, especially the fact that there was no planning permission. The Rochdale Planning Committee issued a Discontinuation Notice.
6 months later, the landowner appealed the decision. November was the deadline for submissions to the independent Inspector. Councillors distributed information on the appeal at the local Brimrod Area Forum, a forum regularly attended by 40 people. Many letters were sent to the Inspector.
In January, the Inspector published his verdict. He found in favour of the residents, citing that the hoardings were ‘out of scale and out of place, introducing a brash commercial presence into an area that otherwise has very low key advertising.’ He concluded that it was appropriate to return effective control over the display of advertisements on the site to the local planning authority.
Congratulations to the community for the strength and persistence of their case.
See Rochdale Online Story at:
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/community-news/19090/sudden-advertising-boards-to-come-down