Thank you to everyone who mailed the Council requesting that we be given an opportunity to present our information, in light of the fact Sky Properties were given the same opportunity some weeks ago.
Unfortunately, we have received our answer and that answer is “No”. In short, objectors to an application are not given the opportunity to provide a briefing to the Council, prior to the day of the formal Panel meeting where the application will finally be decided. Two 5 minute slots are given to the public at the formal meeting for objectors to make their case.
As you can imagine, having such short timeslots and also not being able to present until the actual decision meeting puts us at a disadvantage. This makes the playing field less than level. You might say the playing field is more like a steep slope, one that we’re going to have to start at the bottom and climb our way up.
Either way, as unfair as this may seem, that is where we are and we are going to have to work twice as hard to get to the top of that slope. Our next opportunity to show our strength of feeling will be at the Panel meeting it self. It is crucially important that we get as many people to attend that meeting as possible. We will be demonstrating outside the civic centre in Swinton on the day of the meeting, so get your voices, placards and other gear in order and ready for use.
We have been waiting for the formal Panel meeting for almost 6 months now, each month, it seems to get pushed back another month, so co-ordinating our response has been on hold. We will get around 10 days notice of the final date for the meeting, but until then we’ll be posting up possible dates. Please try to keep checking in on dates, and also think about booking them (tentatively) off work if you can.
The current possible dates are as follows:
March 24th – Not likely
April 7th – Probable
Further actions will be posted soon, please keep checking back here, all asssitance is welcomed and appreciated.