Residents ask for Rooley Moor Wind Farm planning application to be put on hold

Rooley Moor Wind Fram proposal

Local residents are asking Rochdale Council to put a planning application for Rooley Moor Wind Farm on hold until they can produce a 'Neighbourhood Plan'.

Local resident Alan Rawsterne wrote to Leader of the Council, Richard Farnell asking if the council had adopted the Localism Act.

It is understood that Mr Farnell contacted Mr Rawsterne informing him that he would receive a response from Council Chief Executive, Steve Rumbelow in due course – something that Mr Rawsterne says he has not yet received.

Mr Rawsterne has stated 12 reasons as to why residnets believe the application should be put on hold:

• The Localism Act has not been mentioned in communication with RMBC. 
• Residents have only had one informal meeting with planning officers. 
• The council’s current process of determination is “inadequate”.
• Councillors appear to be unaware of the right to engage in a debate about the application. 
• The applicant has engaged the services of Peter Rowlinson, the former head of RMBC’s planning department. 
• The applicant has been allowed to confuse the determination process by submitting an eight turbine option to the original 12 turbine application. 
• The council’s consultation document for the original 12 turbine proposal is “inadequate”. 
• Planning officers have told residents that they won’t respond to further correspondence about the application. 
• Correspondence from council departments is “evasive and uses language intended to put off the recipient”. 
• The council’s website is not compatible with portable devices, so makes it hard for those using portable devices to read documents. 
• Residents have to ask for a consultee response to the application. 
• The council appear to use the rules governing their complaints procedure as if they were “conducting a war of attrition”, so anyone making a complaint will eventually give up. 

Mr Rawsterne states that he has evidence to back up his twelve claims.

Mark Robinson, Head of Planning at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The council is aware of interest from the local community in preparing a Neighbourhood Plan and has supported other groups who have expressed similar interest elsewhere in the borough.

“The preparation of a Neighbourhood Plan is a separate process to the council’s determination of a planning application. This would ultimately require a need for independent review by a Government Planning Inspector for soundness against local and national planning policies before it could be considered for adoption or use in decision making by the council.”