Historian's mosaic plan left in pieces

Northwich Guardian
10th July 2010

Red tape has forced a Northwich man to abandon his plans to commemorate the town rich history. Stuart Hogg, the former president of Northwich and District Heritage Society, wanted to install mosaic panels along the side of Marks and Spencer, in Leicester Street, but council bureaucracy has stifled his efforts.

He said: “Instead of the four wall-mounted panels for which we sought planning permission, Cheshire West and Chester Council’s (CWAC) planning department seems to think we wish to build a new estate and requires information about raw sewage, effluent outfall, etc. – all too time-consuming and stressful.”


Picture: Nick Jones n102835


Stuart had the support of Marks and Spencer, British Waterways, Brunner Mond and CWAC itself, in the form of sponsorship, to have replicas made of the panels currently at Northwich's Somerfield store.

He submitted his application to install the panels in mid June, including pictures of the mosaics and their measurements and a photograph of the planned location.

He was told it was an invalid application because it did not include four copies of the location plan at the correct scale, with the application site shown clearly with a red line, four copies of a block plan of the site, four copies of detailed drawings of existing elevations or four copies of detailed drawings of planned elevations.

Stuart said: “I think it was a good idea that’s fallen through. I couldn’t do it any more because it was doing my head in. It wasn’t the right scale with red lines and blue lines, there wasn’t a plan of the M&S site – why is it needed? It’s just one wall. It’s crazy.”

A CWAC spokesman said: “These are standard requirements, set nationally, for every planning application, whether it be for a mosaic or a major housing planning application.”

UPDATE 4TH AUGUST 2010

Northwich Guardian

Council finally gives go-ahead for Stuart's mosaic plan

MOSAIC panels have been given the go ahead in a U-turn by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC).

Stuart Hogg, former president of Northwich and District Heritage Society, thought red tape had forced him to abandon his plans to install heritage artwork along the side of Marks and Spencer, in Leicester Street.

He was originally told by CWAC’s planning department that his application to install the panels was invalid because it did not include four copies of the location plan at the correct scale, with the application site shown clearly with a red line, four copies of a block plan of the site, four copies of detailed drawings of existing elevations or four copies of detailed drawings of planned elevations.

But after the issue was featured in the Guardian, CWAC has agreed that planning permission is not needed.

In a letter to Stuart, Iwan Hughes, CWAC’s area planning manager for the north and east, said: “On reflection it is clear that the mosaic panels will form a very small part of the side elevation of the Marks and Spencer building and that they do not constitute advertisements.

“Also, having regard to the fact that no building operation will take place to install the panels, I am comfortable in being able to confirm to you that the proposals can be classed as ‘de minimis’, which means that a planning permission would not be required in this instance.”

Stuart has the support of Marks and Spencer, British Waterways, Brunner Mond and CWAC itself in the form of sponsorship and is keen to move on with the project.

He said: “We’re back to the straight and narrow now, as it were. I thought the letter was very good of him – at least they have had the decency to admit they were wrong and say sorry so we can press on, but they should have done that in the first place. It caused a great deal of unnecessary delay and stress”.

The panels, which will be replicas of those at Somerfield, should be put up within two to three months.