DROITWICH councillors are calling on Wychavon to investigate controversial plans to change the parking layout in front of the town’s police station.
Four new parking spaces will be created to provide access to Ombersley Street East after Wychavon’s planning committee gave the scheme the green light.
But, speaking at the latest town council meeting on Monday, members lambasted the decision as dangerous and called it an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
Councillors said the visibility there was already poor and the new space layout would make it even more hazardous.
Members said negotiating the car park exit would be an immense challenge, even for highly trained police drivers and asked what would happen when it came to people without those skills.
They also questioned whether there was a need for warning lights to be installed, similar to those used by the fire service which could be switched on when vehicles were leaving the site.
And they discussed the police’s plans for the future use of the station as it currently shares the building with another agency.
Last month the town council voted unanimously to oppose the West Mercia and Warwickshire Police application.
And although that objection was lodged with Wychavon District Council, Coun Bob Brookes received an apology from planning officers who said they had not seen the email until after the proposal was approved by the planning committee.
Coun Brookes said he was flabbergasted that Worcestershire County Highways had not objected to the proposal, adding the town had been let down by Highways and Wychavon District Council.
“Questions need to be asked and answered about why this has happened,” he said.
“The granting of planning permission between ‘government bodies’ like this should be properly scrutinised in a public and open and transparent manner.”
He said the Highways Department should justify why it had no objections.
Coun Alan Humphries put forward two motions at the council meeting on Monday relating to the decision which led to calls for the town council to demand the decision to be held to account.
The authority’s clerk Pam Craney has now written to Wychavon, calling for a full Overview and Scrutiny Committee investigation.
Gary Williams, joint head of planning and housing at Wychavon, said “At the time of determination the correspondence from Droitwich Town Council was missed which is most unusual.
“Despite this, our decision would not be different especially as the comments from Highways did not reflect the town council’s position.
“We apologise for this error, however the decision is valid and there is no case for revoking this permission.”
Coun Marcus Hart, Worcestershire County Council’s member with Responsibility for Highways said before making any recommendation, the site was visited and it was considered the proposal would not have an adverse impact on highway safety or capacity.
He added, based on the local member’s concerns, a further site visit was undertaken by a second inspector who also concluded that the original recommendation was appropriate.
Visit www.wychavon.gov.uk and search for the reference number 16/01978 to see the application.
