WE are astonished and extremely disappointed that the Government Office for the North West has refused to call-in the planning application for land to the south of Jubilee Gardens, Cleveleys, for inspection by the Secretary Of State.

They provided no real reason for the refusal and the issues Jubilee Action Group and Waters Reach Residents' Association raised in a letter to them have neither been addressed nor acted on. Their claim that "the Secretary of State is satisfied that the issues raised do not relate to matters of more than local importance" is in our opinion a complete and utter dereliction of duty. If our council ignore their own Local Plan, government guidelines and more importantly the overwhelming opinion of both residents, and visitors alike, then it is our belief that it is the responsibility of the Government Office to ensure that such injustices are called in for the Secretary Of State's consideration.

The line taken by themmay just about be acceptable if Planning Committees were impartial and consistent and could be relied upon to judge an application against the relevant planning criteria. In this instance and as witnessed by members of both organisations at the Planning Committee meeting, it was clearly evident that this did not happen.

The discussion of non-related planning matters, the personal preference of many of the councillors, and the overriding determination of the controlling Conservative group to secure the profits from the sale of this land played a far greater role in the committee's decision than any adherence to planning law or policies. In fact, there was virtually no consideration at the meeting of any of the key planning issues or any of the arguments raised.

The Chairman and Officers present were culpable in that they failed to control the meeting in a way that would have enabled the merits of the case to be fully discussed and considered.

Our only consolation is the fact that the public, by their own considerable and united efforts, did manage to stop this council from also disposing of our long established park, Jubilee Gardens.

However, we are now left to wonder how long this will continue to exist when this council now realises how easy it is for them to ignore government legislation, in full knowledge that any non-compliance with planning law would more than likely be disregarded by GONW.

The sale of this public open space together with the sale of many other of our assets such as Marsh Mill and Fleetwood's beach huts is allowing this authority to mask its mismanagement of our borough.

The residents of this Borough should be more than a little concerned that this unprincipled Council seem prepared to go to any lengths to appear in control.

This council has successfully manipulated the planning system, has shown a complete disregard for the electorate and now appears to be in a position to bury our last piece of space under concrete.

The achievements of councils of days gone by in having the vision and foresight to create parks like Jubilee Gardens and Memorial Park for the benefit of future generations is something they could be proud of. But what has the then leader and his council to be proud of? We take no pleasure in seeing Cllr Vincent suspended for 6 months for his apparent naivety, but the shameful mismanagement of Wyre is worthy of a far greater penalty in our opinion.

On a final note and as a word of warning to others in this borough, be on your guard it could be your open land or your landmark next.

Rob Fail (Committee Member), on behalf of Jubilee Action Group & Waters Reach Residents Association