ANOTHER CUNNING PLAN

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I blogged about the shouting match that occurred at the Longdendale and Hattersley District Assembly between Cllr Fitzpatrick and a poor defenceless resident who had had the temerity to ask him an awkward question.

Just to remind you, the uproar was over the rumour that the Giant TESCO had plans to close and open-up again as a ‘distribution centre’ to which Cllr Fitzpatrick responded, ‘He had heard the rumour and had been assured by the company that this was not true!’

Fast forward a few weeks, upon visiting Tameside council’s website, I found a ‘consultation document, entitled: Joint Core Strategy and Development Management Policies Development Plan Document ‘Preferred Options’ which shows quite clearly on page 51 a diagram indicating a huge area of land next to the Giant TESCO in Hattersley, where the council are proposing to allow development which they term as ‘suitable for employment led development for research, light and general industrial purposes and ‘distribution’

Now considering that this plan forms part of a 124 page document; it doesn’t take a genius to work out that this ‘Preferred Options’ document has been knocking about the Town Hall in some form or another for a few weeks and therefore begs the question why, when the question regarding Tesco’s application to amend their terms of agreement regarding 24-7 access for deliveries and the rumours regarding a distribution depot were raised, why didn’t Cllr Fitzpatrick; who is after all the First Deputy of the Executive Panel, fail to mention the council’s imminent proposal?

Are we to assume he wasn’t aware of the proposed document or its contents, in which case he should have been or is it the fact that he felt that revealing the plans to the residents who had gathered to attend the Longdendale and Hattersley District Assembly meeting was of no consequence to them?

The Question and answer session at the next Longdendale and Hattersley District Assembly should be one not to be missed!