news

Earlier news items

Some of the events that made the news before the items on our opening page

Please note: a number of the items previously on this page have been deleted for space reasons

Public sign our petition

September 2008

WE had a publicity stall on Nantwich Square on Saturday, September 6, and collected 200 signatures within three hours on our petition against the latest planning application for the garden area. Proving that Nantwich people are being our fight to save the garden.

MP visits Walled Garden
August 2008

THE Member of Parliament for Crewe and Nantwich, Edward Timpson, has visited the Walled Garden to see for himself what Nantwich could lose if the plans went ahead.

Six terraced houses and two apartments
April 2008

A NEW set of plans for building within the walled garden were shown at a meeting on April 22. These propose six terraced houses and two apartments - all two storeys high - which will take up a major part of the garden and will be surrounded by a Tudor communal garden.

This was described as an enabling development in order to get the walls repaired.

The meeting was attended by the Chairman of Nantwich Walled Garden Society, Peter Harrington, and the Secretary, Pat Fulford; Andrew Jolley of the Dowhill Group, developers and new owners of the walled garden; and Ros Ellison, Planning Officer, and Elizabeth Rodgers, Conservation Officer for the Borough Council.

Also present at the meeting were two representatives from Nantwich Civic Society; Cllr Bill McGuiness, Chairman of Nantwich Town Council, and Riddell Graham, the Town Clerk; and Robert Holmes, agent for the developer, and Lee Walsh, architect.

We believe that while the developers invited us to the meeting to keep us informed, they also wanted us to agree to the new plans, which have yet to be issued for public consultation. We will be discussing the latest plans at our next committee meeting on May 12, and so have not made any comment yet.

Nantwich Walled Garden Society says the walls should have been repaired when building commenced on Kingsley Fields and the Borough Council should by now have issued an Urgent Repairs Notice.

We have appealed to the Planning Ombudsman on three points where we think the Borough Council has been in error:

1, Condition 11 of the original Planning Permission for Kingsley Fields which the Council say gives them permission to allow building on the walled garden. We disagree and maintain it was included to protect the walled garden from development. The walled garden was not included on these plans but was shown as "white" land.

2, The Council has been neglectful of its duties in not issuing an Urgent Repairs notice for the repairs and reinstatement of the walls of the garden

3, The Council has not fulfilled its duties by ensuring that the Planning Inspector's wishes were carried out that a timetable be set for the repair and reinstatement of the walls.

We await his response.

A letter to the Planning Officer referring to the meeting

Ours for £400,000
November 2007

WE have tried to persuade the owners to donate the garden to Nantwich but they have declined. However, they say they would want £400,000 if we wished to purchase it. Can anyone help . . . ?

We have also heard that the owners of the garden have submitted their survey of the wall but say that they cannot give a timescale for the repairs because they want to know what they are allowed to build within the garden. They are in discussion with the Local Authority at the moment but these discussions are private.

Secretary addresses Town Council
September 2006

THE September 11 meeting of Nantwich Town Council was preceded by a Public Forum, the Council's minutes record.

They say: "Mrs Pat Fulford of the Nantwich Walled Garden Society, together with a number of other members of the Society, was present. She urged the Town Council to ask the Borough Council to take action to protect the wall by means of an enforcement notice and also to oppose a recent planning application, which the Society considered endangered the Wall. She also made the point that the Wall was actually suffering damage because there were insufficient safeguards and fencing around it was not high enough.
"In response to Mrs Fulford, the Clerk explained that the Town Council had already written to the Borough Council asking them to take enforcement action to protect the Wall. They had also objected to the planning application on the grounds that the work proposed was too close to the wall. It was agreed that the Clerk would write to the Borough Council suggesting more effective fencing to protect the wall."

More than 1,000 support us
March 2006

AS our membership grows to 200, support from 1,000 people across the area was reported by the Nantwich Chronicle on March 15. The newspaper reported on our volunteers "drumming up support" on the streets of Nantwich, putting more than 500 letters through the doors of houses in town.

Pat Fulford was quoted as saying: "This has now become a big issue in Nantwich. Everyone is talking about this and are disgusted that developers want to swallow up not just this site but land everywhere across town and build yet more homes. People come to live in Nantwich because it is full of heritage and attractive. They are passionate about protecting its image and feel let down by some local councillors who could be doing more to save the garden."

250 sign our petition against flats plan
February 2006

TWO hours on a Saturday morning in Nantwich town centre was all it took for 250 people to sign our petition against the plan to build flats on the Elizabethan garden site.

Later, NWGS Secretary, Pat Fulford, was quoted in the Nantwich Guardian as saying: "We are fighting to preserve our heritage and save the garden as a green oasis amongst all the new developments in Nantwich.

"I think the amount of signatures collected on Saturday demonstrates the backlash against everywhere being built on. People are incensed the town is being ruined by developers."

The owners of the site, Jennings Holdings, were also interviewed by the Guardian. They quote a spokesman as saying the proposal "will cause no harm to the historic features of the wall and will ensure its restoration and continued maintenance."

Pat Fulford added that NWGS will keep campaigning and hoped that anyone who wanted to see the garden saved would write to Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council's planning department. (The local authority is now Cheshire East Council.)

Select Committee supports garden campaign
December 2005

Brian Donohoe, MP for Central Ayrshire and Secretary of the All Party Gardening and Horticultural Committee of the House of Commons, has written to Richard Taylor, Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council's Planning Officer, calling for the avoidance of further development in the walled garden. His letters are reproduced below.

The Chronicle puts us in the picture
December 2005

Cutting used with the kind permission of The Nantwich Chronicle TJ031205wall-003

A CROWD of about 80 people - including residents of the adjacent Kingsley Fields housing development - turned out on a cold morning in early December to protest about the proposed construction of apartments within the walled garden. And there to record it all was The Nantwich Chronicle.

The "crowd" included children and babies in pushchairs.

Nantwich Walled Garden Society secretary, Pat Fulford, was quoted by the Chronicle as saying: "People are incensed. In Kingsley Village every last inch of ground is being developed into new homes. Our society is campaigning to prevent building on the garden, saving and restoring it, so that this small piece of heritage is preserved, giving all access to a green oasis."

A spokesman for RPS Planning, who are advising Jennings Investments (who want to develop the area), was quoted as saying: "We want the wall to stand proud and to retain its historical features. Part of our committment is to restore the garden and the wall but it would not be possible to finance it alone. The flats will be upmarket properties, half of them overlooking the garden."