By Phil Informs
PIG-HEADED planners at Wokemoreland & Farcical Council have AGAIN cost taxpayers thousands of pounds.
Its development control department – not renowned for its common sense – has just had a good hiding off a national planning inspector.
The inspector ruled that W&F planners had been “inaccurate and vague” and had caused “unnecessary delays” to a planning application – as well as putting the applicants to “wasted expense”.
Bizarrely, council planners refused permission for the Lowther Estates Trust to dismantle an ugly 50ft phone mast beside the northbound M6 near Shap.
Surplus to requirements, the old 3G mast (below) is serviced by its own nearby wooden compound.
The trust wanted to replace the mast with a camouflaged, 7ft-tall wooden bird hide complete with turfed roof (below).
This would be used for bird watching by local schools, wildlife clubs & visitors.
But Nanny State planners dug in their heels and turned it down. They were worried about twitchers getting TOO CLOSE to the M6.
The council’s own highways department had no such paranoia. Planners also said they couldn’t justify allowing the bird hide due to the visual impact it would create.
(Unlike the stonking great phone mast and six lanes of motorway tear-arsing through the terrain.) To resolve this craziness, the applicants were forced to go to appeal.
A sensible inspector has now overruled council planners and said the bird hide CAN be built and the defunct mast can come DOWN.
The amount of taxpayers’ cash “Wokemoreland” will have to cough up for fighting this bonkers battle is not known.
When asked to comment, council PR spinners refused to say anything. (You could say they’ve gone into hide-ing?)
The council will have its own costs to pay and the inspector wants it to pay a FULL award of costs to the applicant as well.
All this money will, of course, come out of the taxpayers pot.
And at no time did any members of the public or local parish councils OBJECT to the bird hide that W&F got into a flap about.
So long has this matter dragged on, the application was submitted to the long-abolished Eden District Council and has taken a ridiculous 21 months to resolve.
NB: The planning department has “previous” for worrying about grown adults being near moving vehicles, read more at… COUNCIL BANS OPENING WINDOWS.
Subscribe to get The Cumbria Chronic delivered to your inbox.
thecumbriachronic.co.uk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.