Press Release
For immediate release: Monday 9 October 2017
Residents of Westminster Park have been dismayed once more by new notices attached to lamp-posts informing them that Dee Valley Water have applied to the Department of Transport to change the use of the green space on Fir Tree Avenue enabling them to build a new water pumping station.
This latest move comes ahead of the Cheshire West and Chester Council planning committee meeting next Tuesday 10th October to consider the planning application for the pumping station.
Local resident Steve Barnwell said, “Green spaces on the Westminster Park estate were designed as public amenities not to be built on in the future. Land registry documents for 1969 show that this land was ‘dedicated to the public for ever’, and yet Dee Valley Water want to ride roughshod over these orders.”
Dee Valley Water have applied to the Department of Transport for a highways stopping-up order which will in effect change the ownership and purpose of this open green space. Currently it is owned by Kier Group and is designated as highway with public access.
Steve Barnwell is also very disappointed by the response of Cheshire West and Chester Council to the planning application submitted by Dee Valley Water. “This green space is designated in CWAC’s Local Plan as an important part of the ‘Green Network’ in Chester (CDLP – ENV 19). The urban corridor along the A483 Wrexham Road into Chester should have a green buffer along its length.
He is also concerned that this will set a precedent for future building, “Quite apart from the noise and vibration that we are going to suffer, and the loss of an important local amenity, if the construction of this pumping station is allowed to go ahead, what is to stop another developer or utility company from building in the green buffer zone?”
Anyone wishing to object to the stopping-up order have until Thursday 12th October 2017. They can email the Department of Transport at nationalcasework@dft.gsi.gov.uk quoting case number: NATTRAN/NW/S247/2995 – Fir Tree Avenue Chester.