REQUEST FOR PARISHIONERS’ SUPPORT AND ACTION
- Please note the deadline of July 3rd - please act now! -
Lancashire County Council have a made a proposal that will have a huge adverse impact on the parish, its services, and its income. It especially impacts on St Mary’s. They plan to close the road for two hours before each football match until one hour afterwards. Both Saturday and Sunday Masses will be effected—in fact the Saturday evening Mass will suffer acute access problems every match-day.
We request all parishioners to please write to Lancashire County Council and to our Member of Parliament Oliver Ryan to object to proposals for road closures on certain matches for Burnley FC at Turf Moor. Please feel free to put in your own thoughts as well but the salient points are as listed (in bold) in the main body of the letter below.
Please ensure you include your full name and address and to sign the letter. Start your letter / email with the reference:
Ref LSG4/104438/AFR.
Lancashire County Council:
Attention of Heloise MacAndrew,
Director of Law and Governance ,
PO Box 100, County Hall,
Preston, PR1 0LD,
OR email
Burnley' s MP:
Oliver Ryan MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Email:
Lancashire County Council’s proposal is to do the following;
Re; Item 3 a;
Introduce a Prohibition of driving on Match days (from 2 hours before the start of the match until 1 hour after the end of the match, not to exceed 8 hours within a 24 hour period), when determined to be required in the following lengths of road: Todmorden Road, Burnley from its junction with Yorkshire St/Harry Potts Way to its junction with Lyndhurst Road.
(there are other road closures whch have an equally devastating impact on local residents and organisations but we focus here on those which affect our immediate neighbourhood).
LETTER/EMAIL (in blue) to LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL and OLIVER RYAN MP, for Copy & Pasting:
This proposal would impact the parish very seriously, as well as (among others) organisations like nearby St Catherine’s C of E church and the Borough’s Registry office which are both located on Todmorden Road.
The first issue is why this has become necessary? It has never before been required in over 100 years. It is especially inappropriate as the Club has diverted all away fans into Belvedere Road, with access and exit via the Cricket Club lane. No managed away fans need or have access to Todmorden Road or Harry Potts Way so policing those areas is lessened. In addition, attendances at Championship games (this season) will be smaller than for the Premier League.
The negative impact to us, as well as the 30 plus residents of neighbouring Townfields apartments as well as the Franciscan Convent, would be the following:
Preventing Priests’ Essential Ministry to the sick and dying: The two priests of the parish would not have access to / from outside. They need access to Todmorden Road at all times in order to carry out their ministry, especially to respond to urgent “sick calls” across all of the parish as well as to Blackburn and Burnley Hospitals, often ministering the Sacrament of the Sick to the dying.
Preventing Religious Practice: the proposal would prevent access to our car park and therefore access to the church for Mass, weddings, baptisms etc. All of our Saturday services and Sunday games with a kick-off time of 12.00 or 2.00pm would be impacted. This could prevent people from worshipping and practising their faith. We have an aging community, many have severe mobility problems and cannot walk distances.
Causing loss of important income: Preventing vehicles to come and go on our large church car park which is used on match days by home and away supporters and, through use of parishioners who are volunteers, is a good service to the football club and through the donations, is a significant fundraiser for the parish.
Denying Professional Medical / Caring Service to sick and older people: Both Townfields and the Franciscan Convent have many sick people, and others in need of professional care. Those professionals are usually on very time-limited assignments, and often delivering essential, even life saving aid. They would not be able to have that access as parking nearby would be impossible.
Please end your letter with a request that they withdraw the proposal.
Thank you