College rapped for putting up poles without permission
MACCLESFIELD College has come under fire for installing 11 flags on 6m high poles – without planning permission.
The college is using the flags to advertise the courses available at the Park Lane site.
But Macclesfield Town Council members complained about ‘noise pollution’ caused by the flags when it is windy and claims they are ‘visually intrusive’.
The college filed retrospective planning permission when it realised it had broken the rules.
Now, to the college’s relief, Cheshire East Council’s planning department have given the flag poles the green light.
If they had been denied permission the flags would have had to come down.
Rachel Kay, chief executive at Macclesfield College, said the flags were aimed at celebrating the college’s achievement in the last year.
She said: “Since I took over the College last year, I’ve been working hard to raise the quality of our curriculum and course delivery. We’ve come a long way and wanted to replace the former banners with new flag poles that look neat and truly reflect the value our cur- rent course offering provides to local businesses and the opportunities we offer to learners of all ages.
“Local community is at the heart of everything we do so we carried out relevant research before the installation. We found similar flags on roads across Macclesfield and were under the assumption that the installation of the new poles would be a minor change.
“We value our relationship with people living in the surrounding area and will also work closely with the flag pole manufacturers to assess the situation and identify the origin of the noise in order to find a suitable solution.”
After the college submitted its plans Maccles- field Town Council responded members had expressed concern that the ‘flag poles are in place without prior consultation’, that there is ‘noise pollution during windy conditions’ due to the flags; concerns they could cause a distraction to highway users, and that they are ‘visually intru- sive’ from numerous locations around the town.
But planning officer Laura Hayes said highways and Environmental Protection officer had no concerns and the design of the flags were modest and would not adversely effect the aesthetic and character of the surrounding area.