The Funny Stuff

I forgot to put this in but here is a bit of Irony for you. 25th july in the morning  Horwich in Bloom judges came and took photo's of Greenwood, 25th July in the afternoon Owner boarded it up. That's Life!  We will keep on fighting O.K. folk's.
Protest 1pm to 3pm Sunday 31st July. See you there.

No 2 Protest

Look at this Smart Bunch of Protestors. On Spa Road Bolton. Were Sedgwicks have their offices, No 25. Just 6 of us and we handed out 40 Leaflet's. We are protesting again on the 31/07/2011 outside and around The Greenwood Arms so come on down for a peaceful organised banner protest, also can you please keep sending in your objections. Planning Application no  83461/11  to Helen Williams Planning Department, 3rd Floor, Bolton Town Hall. BL1 1RU.  We must keep up the pressure, remember slowly, slowly, catch a monkey.  We have facebook link's in Australia. So G'Day cobbers throw a prawn on the barbie for us.  We have 264 Signatures on our Petition. Well done guy's keep on spreading the word.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenwood-Action-Group/124695514287600  I know it's a bit long but this is Face book page, take a look.

The Enigmatic Protestors

We would like to give a great Big Thank you to you all. Now we have got a some press coverage we might stop this, we really need more objection's about the planning permission. The application number is 86341/11 The demolition order is this one  86472/11 Send your objection's to Helen Williams  Bolton Town Council, Planning Department.  We have to get people writing in objection's as to why our Heritage should not keep being demolished. The more we can get the stronger our argument will be. Absolutely anyone in the world can send in an objection, yes I do mean the world. E-mail helen.williams@bolton.gov.uk  She is the principal development officer (planning control) If every body just write even a short letter they will all add up. Come on people. It was people power that stopped Murdoch. An online petition with 100,000 signatures was presented to parliament. So it can be done, so let's do this folk's.

The Monday Evening Protest

We would like to say a Big Thank You to everyone who turned up to our Protest, it went down really well. No one caused any problem's whilst  The Greenwood Action Group were there.  The same sort of behavior for the next protest would be greatly appreciated, we do not want to give the owner any reason for calling in the police, this will seriously DAMAGE any good work already done. If we don't play by the rules we will get nowhere. So please if you attend please do so with good intention's.

The Protest

Just a little bit of new's. Should have been earlier. We are having a protest on the 25th july at 5pm. Come on down and bring a friend.The more we get, the stronger the message will be.

The Bowling Green

The developers want to use the Bowling Green for houses, 5 semi detatched and 2 detatched, 4 bed each, with parking for 24 cars. this will be another asset to Horwich lost and unreplaceable because once a green space is lost it is very hard to find somewhere new for it. You may think that Crown Green Bowling is a sport for old people but I can tell you it is  very popular amongst the younger generation, my daughter is in 2 team's. One of those being The Lancashire Youth Team.

There is no need for any more houses in these small areas as it makes it looked cramped and over built, the traffic on Chorley New Road is a nightmare at the best of times and to put even more on would be madness.

There are 3 school's in very close proximity to the Greenwood Arms and Bowling Green which makes it dangerous now, put more car's into that equation and it would be even worse. As it is in a morning and early evening it can take anything up to 3 or 4 minutes to get onto the road out of Derby Street, which is the un-adopted road the developers want to use as access. The people who live in and around this area do not want the added pressure of all the extra car's, not to mention extra noise of the car's and so far unknown quantity of people the houses will bring.

It was a sad day when the developers SRH properties bought the Greenwood Arms and Bowling Green, because they stopped 3 Bowling Team's from using the Bowling Green even when they said they would maintain it. Can't really say it but we all know why!!!!

Mr Sedgewick who represents the developers should have a talk to these people and see if they won't have a re-think on keeping the Greenwood Arms and Bowling Green as it is and bringing it back to life. The potential is there and it would definitely be a feather in the cap of the developers, as it would show that they can see further than their profit margins. If not that why not try to find a buyer who will keep it as it is. There has to be someone who can see the beauty of the Building and the big asset of the Bowling Green.                          

Sadly this is what the Bowling Green looks like now. It was once an immaculately well kept and well used Bowling Green. I would also like to add that green spaces are supposed to be protected by law under the supervision of Sport England. So e-mail them with your objections and concerns about losing yet another green space and amenity. This government wants Adult's and Children alike to become more active and then they let the big boy's in with their bulldozers and take away the places we could use. Write to them today as it might not be there Tomorrow!


This is what it could look like.

Heritage Building

One of the main reason's for saving the Greenwood Arms is Horwich as a town is sick of losing it's Historical Heritage to the faceless unaccountable developers. All of England is in the same boat and we must do something about it now. Our Heritage is going to be wiped out and all we will be left with is a picture in a history book of what our Historical Architecture used to look like. Do we want this NO! we DO NOT!

PROTEST OUTSIDE THE GREENWOOD ARMS 25TH JULY AT 5PM. PLEASE PLEASE ATTEND AND BRING SOMEONE WITH YOU. WE NEED ALL THE SUPPORT WE CAN GET BUT WE HAVE TO ABIDE BY THE LAW. WHICH YOU KNOW ALREADY.

Demolition Stay of Execution

The fact that the Greenwood  has nesting House Martins,you cannot knowingly damage,remove or demolish their nest's until they have migrated, has I think given us a bit of breathing space because I
have just got back from Bolton Planning Committee, and SRH property developers have to give prior notice for Demolition,which take's up to 8 weeks. Also the owners have said they are going to close the Greenwood Arms on 31st July. Another tac tic for saying that the  business is not viable and the site is ripe for development.

Have heard Thwaites and Wetherspoons are looking for pub's so if anyone wants e-mail feel free to do so. It is an impressive Victorian building on a prime main road site close to Reebok and Motorway, plenty of parking space, also a very hard working and very lovely Lanlady Denise.

Planning Application

This is my first go at Blogging, so here is some info that should have gone on first. The planning application number for the building is 86341/11 and can be found at www.bolton.gov.uk/planapps  This shows what they want to build. A bank of 5 industrial style shops on the site were Greenwood is now and 5 semi-detatched and 2 detatched all 4 bed houses which would be on the Bowling Green. Access would be on Derby Street, an unadopted road at the side of the Greenwood.

The Second Bombshell was when we heard that The Greenwood Arms was going to be demolished on or around the 27/07/11. This was even before the council planning committee had even had a meeting about the planning application, but there is now going to be a meeting about the demolition issue on the 21/07/11 at Bolton Town Planning. Planning Application 86472/11 if you want to object to Bolton Concil, Bolton Town Hall,Bolton BL1 1RU.

During all this bombing we found out that the renowned bowling green(Lancashire Matches have been played on it),is a protected green space and is in a country wide survey done by Sport England in 2007. In this survey it was deemed to be good, now after no care or attention it look's like this. Not unredeemable but it will take a lot of work and plenty of T.L.C.

Also on a very enviromental note there are House Martins nesting in the  eves of The Greenwood Arms and have done so for many years. Supposedly protected until all the chicks have flown?

The first bombshell...

Early in June we received notice that the Greenwood Arms and its renowned bowling green were going to be demolished and replaced by shops and houses.

The Greenwood Arms is a Victorian heritage building that I have lived adjacent to and gazed upon for the last 28 years. In our opinion, this local landmark is a more appropriate building than the one proposed to take its place...

The proposed unnecessary shops