Turnpike Field Entrance

Ed: The enclosed statement from the Parish Council is self explanatory, so AOL will close the ongoing submissions to Chatbox about the requirements or otherwise for the Turnpike Entrance work to have planning permission

Turnpike Field Entrance

Audlem Parish Council is very grateful to the efforts of the volunteers who helped to significantly improve the safety of the Green Lane Entrance onto Turnpike. Also massive thanks are due to the professional efforts of Dylan Jones. Generous donations by a local individual and ADAS will pay for the construction and the materials used..Whilst there were mixed views regarding the need for planning permission, it was considered necessary to carry out appropriate checks, prior to commencing the works.

If you try to contact CE Planning for any formal, pre-application guidance, you are greeted with the statement:-

"The pre-application advice service has currently been suspended.......unfortunately to manage the high application numbers and focus on those already submitted we are currently not accepting pre-application enquiries for smaller schemes."

This question was raised at the April 3rd APC meeting and it was confirmed that planning requirements would be verified as part of the associated works.

So, as well as reading a variety of information available online, the Working Group had a couple of 'informal' discussions with a local Highways person who recommended the guidelines that were needed to be followed so that the improvements would not require any Planning or Highways approval.

This view was then also confirmed by the CE Highway's officer who arrived at 10.30 on Thursday morning just after the work commenced. He checked up on the existing gate by looking online on Streetview and took several photos. After consulting his office he returned and again confirmed that all was well.Also, when the old entrance was being scraped back, a brick layer and gatepost foundation were unearthed showing that historically one side of the entrance had been nearer to the southern tree than the current one, so in the past it may even have been wider.

Please click on the images to enlarge