9 April 2024 Gladmans Update
Several members have contacted us regarding the drilling that started in March on the fields north of Bailrigg Lane and is being accessed via Winmarleigh Road. Lancaster City Council refused planning permission for 19/01135/OUT 644 dwellings on the greenfield site between Bailrigg Lane and Hala in December.
What is happening?
One message is especially vivid and was accompanied by photos:
As you know, I walk across these fields to work so have been aware of the work taking place. The company is called DMW Drilling and when they first appeared (11th March) the man in charge approached me to apologise for the tyre tracks from was then just two vans and assured me that when they left they would repair all the muddy ruts. He seemed quite open and friendly (a fellow Liverpudlian) and I talked to him for about ten minutes. But he claimed to not know what they were drilling for ('they never tell me') or that a planning application had been refused to build 640 houses there (he thought the site completely unsuitable for housing, being water logged, on a steep slope, under electricity pylons). He said they would be there for three weeks, which means they should have left by now, but as I was working in Cornwall last week I don't know if they have gone. More and more men and vehicles kept arriving and they moved the drilling sites around the various fields, so what were lovely green fields are now just brown mud.
The public right of way runs along the hedge but where it passes through the narrow gateways it will now be very difficult to navigate, having been completely churned up (the fields were already extremely wet and muddy).
We contacted Lancaster City Council Planning Office for clarification and received the following message on 5 April 2024:
Sorry for the delay here. The works are most definitely site investigation works that are taking place here. It’s a drilling rig and I noticed it from the M6. It's not uncommon for developers to undertake site investigations before advancing proposals. The works themselves do not require the benefit of Planning Permission but I will do some digging. We did use a reason for refusal associated with groundwater and therefore it may be that they are undertaking some monitoring of this but I will find out.
We will update you when we have further details.
