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The Champion • Wednesday 11 September 2013‘Illegible’ Brownfieldplans made clearerSFVisit us @ www.ChampNews.com • 33Take youranywhere!Get your FREE Champion Newspaper APP today!A RETIRED teacher hasrequested that Brownfieldsite plans for Southport andFormby be published again ina new bid for “clearertransparency” from SeftonCouncil.Peter Greener requestedthat Alan Lunt, the Directorof Built Environment forSefton, provided him with asimplified table of StrategicHousing Land AvailabilityAssessment (SHLAA) sitesafter he found the originalformat of the document,published online, to be“unreadable.”The simplified documentshowed sites withoutplanning permission from 1stApril 2012 that could bedeveloped for housingdevelopment.Brownfield sites are landpreviously used for industrialor commercial uses, whichmay be contaminated by lowconcentrations of hazardouswaste or pollution, but whichcan be reused.Plans include land atSouthport Hospital on TownLane in Kew anddevelopment of Toad Hallnear Ainsdale in the next fiveyears, and the Powerhousesite on Hoggs Hill Lane inFormby being developedwithin the next ten years.Peter Greener said: “TheSHLAA shows the Brownfieldsites on which houses can bebuilt.“Obviously the morestraightforward thepresentation in the documentthe better.“If residents are to help withthe identification andunderstand where housingestates can be built it’sThe Powerhouse site in Formbyimportant that all documentsare open and transparent.“It is very important that allBrownfield sites are built onfirst because to be honest ifdevelopers have their waythe Brownfield sites would beleft as a vandalised andneglected area of adeveloping rust belt.Development would takeplace on farmlands–andSefton has some of the bestand most productivefarmlands in the country!The council’s own landassessor confirms this.“Also, over 5,000 vacantproperties need sorting.The government says 3% ofauthorities’ housing stockcould be vacant but Sefton’sover 4% exceeds that by over30% – thousands.“Lancashire has the largestnumber of vacant houses inthe country but this is noexcuse for Sefton, a fractionof the size of Lancashire,having so many.”A spokesman for SeftonCouncil said: “ThisCode1027848gentleman is a regularcorrespondent and wealways do our best to helpwhere we can.“He has made commentsabout the Strategic HousingLandAvailabilityAssessment, or SHLAA, andwe have tried to clarify thingsas much as possible.“This is expected to be atechnical document but, intrying to be helpful, we haverecently taken time out toproduce a summary versionfor him.“We have also invitedanybody who wants todiscuss any finer details toattend one of our manypublic events.“It is worth rememberingthat, ultimately, all ourfigures, documents andstudies will be fullyscrutinised at a PublicExamination.”The document can beviewed at sefton.gov.ukd.thompson@champnews.comThe new ŠKODA range is availablefrom £0 Advance PaymentCitigo from£0Rapid from£0ADVANCEPAYMENTADVANCEPAYMENTFabia from£0Octavia from£0ADVANCEPAYMENTADVANCEPAYMENTRoomster from£0Yeti fromADVANCEPAYMENT£0ADVANCEPAYMENTAlex Lawrie38 Sandhills Lane, Liverpool L5 9XN0844 209 8083 www.alexlawrieskoda.co.ukTo qualify for this offer you must be in receipt of the Higher Rate Mobility Component of Disability Living Allowance, War Pensioners’, MobilitySupplement, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP). Advance Payment (AP) valid for applicationsto Motability from 1st July to 30th September 2013.Official fuel consumption in mpg (litres/100km) for the ŠKODA range: Urban 19.2 (14.7) – 68.9 (4.1), ExtraUrban 36.2 (7.8) – 94.2 (3.0), Combined 27.7 (10.2) – 83.1 (3.4). CO 2 emissions for the ŠKODA range 237 – 89 g/km. Standard EU Test figures for comparative purposes and may not reflect real driving results.11205381122237