Campaigners fighting controversial plans by Cheshire East Council to ‘desecrate’ a woodland to undertake disputed ‘safety’ works at Poynton Pool are raising funds for a judicial review, should it become necessary. Poynton Pool is classed as a large high-risk reservoir, which means an uncontrolled release of water could endanger human life. The council, as landowner, has a legal obligation to carry out works to ensure it is safe and, following an inspection, submitted a planning application to do work to prevent possible future flooding.
But the work involved felling 78 trees and removing 80m of hedgerow. Even the council’s own planning officers said the environmental impact would be ‘brutal’ and ‘significantly harmful’. In April, Cheshire East’s strategic planning board deferred the application after hearing from an engineering expert, speaking on behalf of campaigners, that there were alternative, less harmful options than that being proposed by the council’s engineers.
The deferral was to enable disputed data to be reviewed, to allow an inspection of the dam below the water level and for ‘engagement with third parties to consider/explain alternatives’. Now campaign group, Friends of Poynton Pool (FoPP), is re-focusing its fundraising campaign in case a legal challenge becomes necessary, should the council decide to press ahead with the scheme. But a judicial review could cost more than £50,000.
FoPP chair Mike Ellison, an arboriculturist, said: �.