News reached yours truly last Friday from various local sources that there had been a major drugs sting down in the park -
Rossington Park, that is! First wind that something was amiss came from local delivery people, who had noticed lots of police activity in the area. Fortunately it was my day off so I got out the old bike and had a nose on down. I found a solitary police car guarding the premises, as you can see from the photo below.
(For those of you who don't recognise the whereabouts of this particular tin shed, it's on the left as you enter the monstrosity known as
Rossington Park, via the infuriatingly off-centre roundabout that unnecessarily impedes motorists. The road that leads into the park has been named in keeping with the wretchedness of the place as
Graphite Way.)
Then followed an unsubstantiated rumour that nine Chinese men had been arrested for growing cannabis plants looking something like this:
Further 'news' claimed that people had been living in these sheds on a fairly permanent basis. Sleeping facilities, a T.V. set and various other home comforts were alleged to have been seen removed from the building during the bust, along with an entire lighting system.
I cannot substantiate these details but what I can say for certain is that the early rumour of a raid on a cannabis growing factory on Rossington Park has definitely proved to be true and has indeed now been confirmed as such on the Advertiser's website. They state however, that only two arrests have been made to date.
The photo below which I also took at the scene is quite interesting and mildly amusing. It suggests that CCTV is in operation 24 hours a day. So how come it failed to pick up footage of people entering and leaving the premises, along with the truckload of baggage and belongings that comes with permanent residence and the operation of a wholescale agribusiness?!
Dare I suggest that CCTV in this instance stands for Cannabis Cultivation Treatment Vacinity!
Notice when you read the Advertiser story that the Police were alerted to the incident as a result of "vital information from the community" and NOT from CCTV footage, which one suspects, does not exist.
People will have their own views as to the pros and cons of growing the cannabis weed but the real issue here is all about the dopes in planning who have never had any control over this sprawling mess known as Rossington Park and who continue to have no control. We have always argued that the site has been uncontrolled and unregulated from the start and continues to be.
From the beginnng S.C.C. were allowed to dump hundreds of concrete pods on the opposite bank of the river for the best part of two years without any planning permission and in the teeth of local opposition.
Then the supposed live-in workshops, (passed in planning on the basis that they would provide local jobs to reduce commuting) are now being marketed not as workshops but as Rossington Homes... a luxury riverside development.
A modern day scandal of monumental proportions if ever there was one, were it not for the fact that this is the free for all known as Rossington Park where anything goes, so long as HPBC gets a revenue from it!
When planning rules and regulation have been flouted from the start, when the voices of local people don't count for one jot, where monitoring procedures do not exist and when actual planning permissions are simply ignored or blatently flouted, is anyone really all that surprised that this can happen and go unnoticed for so long?
The only real surprise is that the incompetence of our planning officials has been tolerated for so long and that our councillors have simply turned a blind eye to what's going on here. Questions have to be asked and heads need to roll over this one.
Tintwistle and Hadfield Residents Association meet at the New Lamp, Bankbotton, Hadfield, the first Monday in every month at 8.00pm. As today(6th) is the first Monday in the month you are welcome to join us. This month will be an open forum without a structured Agenda so it will be an opportunity for anyone to come along and raise an issue. No doubt one or two of you may want to raise this particular story as a discussion item!
On Saturday morning (25th October) there will be a coffee morning upstairs at Tintwistle Conservative Club from 10.00am till noon. Entry fee is 50p which includes a raffle ticket. The event is a fundraiser for Tintwistle Cricket Club.
Expect to find on sale items such as cakes, books, CD's, DVD's, videos, bric-a-brac etc. So if you have a free morning why not saunter on down, grab a bargain and help the village cricket team at the same time?
