Minister
agrees to consider Call-In of Goostrey Planning Application
Government
Housing Minister, Brandon Lewis MP, yesterday agreed in the House of Commons, to
give full considerations to a request by Fiona Bruce MP for the Secretary of
State for Communities and Local Government to Call In a planning application
for 119 houses in Goostrey close to Jodrell Bank.
Asking the Minister in the
Chamber of the House of Commons today, Fiona Bruce said
Will Ministers give very serious
consideration to a call-in request I have made relating to a planning
application for 190 properties in Goostrey? It would generate detrimental
interference to the radio telescopes and world-leading scientific work at
Jodrell Bank, and is therefore a concern of national significance.Responding, Brandon Lewis MP said
My hon. Friend will appreciate that I cannot comment on a particular planning application, but any such request will be given full consideration. I know that she has campaigned very hard with local residents to protect what they perceive as an important piece of local infrastructure. I will obviously look at all the details that come in.
Yesterday
was the third time Fiona Bruce has raised, with Ministers in the House of
Commons, concerns about the potentially damaging effect such a large housing
development near to Jodrell Bank could have on the sensitive radio telescopes
there. (Previous debates of 14th January and 5th March
are copied below)
Speaking after the
Minister’s response, Fiona Bruce said
“Government Ministers have got the
message loud and clear that this development should not go ahead. The work at
Jodrell Bank is world leading and Government had committed to investing over
£100million in the Square Kilometre Array Project of which Jodrell Bank is a
key part.
The work at Jodrell Bank
is of strategic importance to the future of radio astronomy and I am very
pleased that Ministers have today confirmed that they will carefully consider
the detailed submissions which I have made on behalf of residents and Jodrell
Bank itself.
The Call In of an
application refers to the power of the Secretary of State to take the decision
on a particular planning application out of the hands of the local planning
authority for his own determination and one of the key grounds is because there
are matters of national significance involved. Surely there can be fewer better
arguments for a Call In of a planning proposal than detrimental impact on
Jodrell Bank.”
