More than 80 objections to park driving range

Rochdale Council's planning department has received more than 80 letters of objection to the proposed golf driving range in Springfield Park.

The objections form part of the groundswell of opinion against the controversial scheme and now the Friends of Springfield Park group are encouraging more people to object.

One of the group's active members, Nuala Chapman, has prepared documents to lead people through the objection process in the hope that more people will make objections before the deadline (Friday 23 October). These documents are available to download with this news story.

The Council's arms length management organisation for sport, Link4Life, submitted a planning application to the council for the driving range last month.

The range would comprise a single storey building with room for 30 driving bays, a perimeter fence which could measure up to 20 metres high in places, and associated floodlighting.

Originally the plans submitted to the public and to council were for the fence to measure between 10 and 15 metres in height but since then, in another move which has sparked controversy, the planning application has been changed to a fence measuring between 10 and 20 metres high - leading to cries that the planning application was incorrectly publicised when it was first submitted.

A Friends of Springfield Park spokesperson said: “All we want is a full and open debate and the necessary, properly conducted, open consultation events with the Rochdale community about whether the driving range is the right thing for the park.

"Instead we have to accept a secret Cabinet decision giving Link4Life the go-ahead, without the proper and promised community consultation events, and now we have the debacle of the news that the planning application was incorrectly publicised. We ask the council to correct the error and let the public know in the correct and proper manner the new timetable for determination of the application."

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