Warning over ‘drug-fuelled drivers' using Chorley’s rural roads as a racetrack

That was the claim made at a meeting of Chorley Council’s planning committee, as members considered a bid to build three new houses at Peewit Farm, off Moor Road in Anglezarke.

The application had been recommended for approval by the authority’s planning officers, but a resident living close to the proposed site said that councillors needed to consider the safety of the access point to the new properties.

Peter Gatley told members that the wall outside his home had been knocked down on four occasions.

“It’s a single track road…and in the evening, people use [it] as a racetrack. There’s not been a lot said [about] accidents, because a lot of drug-taking goes on [at] the viewpoint

“They race up and down there and it’s really dangerous, so if the entrance was opposite my house, I do think someone will be severely injured.

“Cyclists [also] come down there…at a really high speed - there’s no way of stopping them.

"I’ve seen so many near [misses] and I have seen accidents - and nine times out of ten, the people that have the accidents don’t report them, because they’re high on drugs,” Mr Gatley added.

Lancashire County Council highways officials had said that they did not have any objection “in principle” to the planned development.

However, June Molyneaux, the planning committee’s chair - and a councillor for Adlington and Anderton, the ward in which Peewit Farm sits - urged residents to report to the police any incidents like those described by Mr. Gateley.

“It’s also an issue in [another] part of the ward in the Rivington area. It’s the same ones driving a circuit,” said Cllr Molyneaux, adding that the logging of incidents would “give more power to our elbow”.

Committee member Cllr Gordon France, who represents Chorley North East, said that he had been at meetings of the Rivington and Brinscall advisory group when a local farmer had made “exactly the same comments” as Mr. Gatley.

Planning case officer Iain Crossland said that a condition attached to the permission for the Peewit Farm application would ensure that the entrance was “further up the lane” from Mr. Gatley’s home.

The plans - which were approved by a majority of committee members, with two abstentions - involve the demolition of workshop and storage buildings on either side of Moor Lane which are currently being used for motor vehicle repairs. One new detached property would be built on the eastern plot and two on the western side.

Although not in greenbelt, the site does lie within the West Pennine Moors area of open countryside. National planning rules state that the development of isolated homes in such locations should be discouraged.

However, planning officers noted the presence of three existing properties in the immediate area and concluded that the proposal was acceptable, because it would improve the appearance of the plot and have a similar impact on the openness of the area as the buildings that would be demolished.