Shameful @LancashireCC selling off public spaces in Burnley by auction tomorrow.

Whilst suspending Council services saying that they're not essential during the #COVIDー19 crisis.

Community ignored on green space proposals. Despite Crisis showing that Green Space is precious.

The land was a wooded copse with lots of wildlife until it was put up for sale by @LancashireCC

The wildlife and green space was completely obliterated in one day on 3 December 2019 under @LancashireCC ownership. No felling licence was obtained. The community wasn't notified.

As the district councillor for this area I was given no notice of the actions of @LancashireCC but after constant correspondence, the council finally told me that a community group would be considered for the public land on 24 February 2020.

I approached several community groups and many were interested. A Burnley arm of Incredible Edible came forward and this an artist's impression of their proposal

More details of their proposal here

But, within 11 days of letting me know that a community group would be considered for the site, @LancashireCC took the decision to re-listed it for auction on 6 March 2020.

We urged @LancashireCC to postpone the auction and see sense that they were asking for a lot from a voluntary group in a short time and people had already started isolating from #COVIDー19 by that point.

I was told that if a proposal was brought forward the Council would consider it. They refused the community group PPE to allow the community group to do this safely because PPE was for "key workers". Basically @LancashireCC know this sale of public land isnt #COVIDー19 essential

The groups proposal was submitted to @LancashireCC at 18:11 on 9 April 2020 - nearly two weeks before the auction.

At 19:05 on 9 April 2020 the council leader dismissed the proposal out of hand.

No feedback has been provided to the Community Group about their proposal at all.

I urged @antony_hig to step in given that this does not seem an essential piece of work for @Conservatives run councils to be pursuing in the crisis.

@antony_hig was told it was "too late".

Apparently @LancashireCC have held this land for decades but it absolutely must be sold from under the community tomorrow as a matter of priority!

Hundreds of residents have signed a petition. But the Council won't listen to the public

@BurnleyExpress covered this too: https://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/people/crushing-blow-volunteers-who-had-planned-create-community-garden-well-known-burnley-landmark-2541824