Good evening All,
I hope today to give you an update on what has been happening in and around Horwich and Blackrod over the last few months and what HBFI and I have been doing.
Subjects today are
De Havilland Way
BWFC Parking Liaison Group
Telford St Petition
Street Gritting
Handrail on Ainsworth Ave/Sandringham Rd
Northstone Liaison Group
De Havilland Way,
As some of you will be aware from letters recently posted, a resident and I spoke at Horwich Town Council regarding our concerns. The resident is an individual who has worked on EU and National funded grants for research and enterprise for 14 years, 5 years as MI Operations manager (data analysis on case data) and revenue & margins data engineer.
So safe to say, they have experience in this subject.
I simply spoke as to my extreme disappointment as to how the Conservative Councillors and a Labour Councillor were still pushing for these proposals even after the clear objections from the public. The other member of the public came with a plethora of data and information that was all handed over to Cllr Steven Chadwick. Cllr Chadwick had a motion at Horwich Town Council to write a letter to the Secretary of State expressing our thoughts on the De Havilland Way proposals, all data that had been presented was all that could’ve been asked for and more. Once the letter has been received I will ensure that this is circulated to you all. We however would like to thank the resident who wishes to remain unnamed at present for the data provided is extremely detailed and invaluable, one would’ve hoped that the council would’ve done half as good a job.
BWFC Parking Liaison Group
So by chance, I had an issue with a vehicle blocking my drive tonight, I dialled 101 and after 45 minutes got through to a handler who took details from me. Surprisingly I had 2 officers knocking on my door within 15 minutes, they ran a check on the vehicle and subsequently dealt with the issue of having the vehicle removed. See the photo of my heroes who attended and dealt with the issue, I promise I wasn’t too enthusiastic about asking for the photo. I have had a number of phone calls with residents (one today by chance) and a few emails. I have emailed BWFC and I’m currently trying to set up a meeting with them and the police (and hopefully all of you) so that we can tackle this issue without overstretching our local officers. There must be something that BWFC can do to alleviate the issues for those of us that live around the stadium.
Once I have an update I will pass this on and hopefully, we will have a meeting set up.
Telford St Petition
You may have seen that we have a petition running in hopes of saving another Horwich greenspace that is at risk. A Conservative Councillor let slip that Bolton Council needs to find £4M and they are looking at selling off assets to make up this funding. This comment was quickly deleted but fortunately, we managed to screenshot this. I think it is safe to say that with the 208 houses on the Golf Course, the 47 on Pickup’s Fields, The 70+ on Llama Fields and the 2500+ on the Loco Works that Horwich is doing its bit for the housing needs.
Cllr David Grant applied for the fields to be transferred to Horwich Town Council but this was blocked by the Conservatives, please if possible, do sign this petition online or ask me to come around for a physical signature.
https://www.change.org/p/transfer-telford-street-field-to-horwich-town-council
Street Gritting
A decision was made by one Councillor at Bolton Council to cut the number of Roads being gritted as of 2023/2024. There was no consultation at all with the councillors or public in Horwich and Blackrod over this. So Councillor Grant has had this issue called into scrutiny with the support of other councillors, shockingly though this was only Councillors Grant & Wright from our 2 towns and he had to gain support from other Independent councillors from other parties as the Labour and Conservatives sat in silence.
Our towns have some of the most rural roads in the Borough and sitting on the border or Chorley and having Rivington looking over us some of the hilliest roads, our towns are ultimately on a hill bringing its own risks on rainy days never mind snowed in and icy days. Once this has been brought into the discussion at Bolton Council I will bring you an update.
Hand Rail Ainsworth Ave/Sandringham Rd
I spoke at Horwich Town Council this month on behalf of an elderly resident who is having to hire taxis just to get off her street, this had cost her over £70 in Sept alone. The junction is on a steep hill and at its steepest sits at a 20 deg angle, unfortunately, Horwich Town Council doesn’t have a budget for this in the current year. The Conservative ward councillor was present but could offer no solution so I contacted Councillor Richard Silvester and he responded on the same day to say that he would speak to the officer in charge of Area Forum Funding to see if anything can be done by Bolton. I will give him one more week before I start to chase him on this matter, I appreciate that these matters don’t happen overnight.
If you have anything concerns about individuals in your area please don’t let them suffer in silence.
Northstone Liaison Group
I have today received an email from Northstone, they have concerned that the Golf Club will be closing on Monday 31 Oct 2022. Northstone will then commence the supplementary site investigation from Tuesday 01 Nov until Thursday 03 Nov.
This is the outstanding site investigation that couldn’t be completed last winter due to disruption and damage that it would’ve caused to the course. This investigation will involve a large digger, the team have stated that they hope to cause minimum disruption, however, with the size of the vehicle it will create noise during its operation.
Please do not be alarmed, this is not the start of Northstone building on the site, I will be updated when this starts and in turn, will ensure that this information is passed on to you in due course.
I have however enquired as to what the supplementary is for, their starting time and ending time.
If you have any enquires then please don’t hesitate to email me.
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Kindest Regards
Ryan Bamforth
Tel/Text/WhatsApp 07904571770