The One-Man Battle of Mustard Lane

The 'old' Croft School, in around 1905

Liverpool Daily Post
9th January 1969

A fifty-five-year-old railway signalman is staging a lone battle against Lancashire County Council.
He is also taking on the divisional education committee of South West Lancashire, Warrington Rural Council and the Parish Council on which he has served for the past 24 years.

Mr Jim Hampson, of Oak Street, Croft, will be the sole objector at a public inquiry at Warrington next Wednesday.
And yesterday he received a letter from Warrington Rural Council asking him to withdraw his opposition to the siting of a new primary school in Mustard Lane, Croft. But last night Mr Hampson said he had no intention of withdrawing.  "This is a matter of principle," he said. "No-one else has been granted planning permission to build on any site at Croft earmarked for Green Belt, and I cannot see why the rules should be broken now when land originally chosen for the new school is still available half a mile away from Mustard Lane."

So, the battle of Mustard Lane will go on.

For months Mr Hampson, a member of Croft Parish Council, and chairman of Warrington Rural Parish Council's Association, has been campaigning against the decision to build the urgently-needed primary school opposite to the present school in Mustard Lane. In the first instance the county council suggested that it should go up on the site in Smithy Lane which is owned by Warrington Rural Council.
The rural council, however pointed out that they had plans for the building of sheltered accommodation for old people on this site. This was a proposal which evoked a sharp reaction from Mr Hampson.
"As much as I appreciate the needs of old people, a new primary school is much more urgently required," he said.
But the county council eventually agreed with the rural council, the divisional executive committee and Mr Hampson's fellow members of Croft Parish Council that the Mustard Lane site was suitable.

Since then, the railway-man has organised a petition signed by 310 Croft householders and originally he found a powerful ally in the Ministry of Agriculture who supported his contention that the Mustard Lane site should be retained for agricultural purposes.
As a result, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government ordered next week's public inquiry.
This week, however, it was learned that the Ministry of Agriculture had withdrawn their objection, and the rural council wrote to Mr Hampson pointing out that he was now the only objector.
​
"It cost them 3s 5d to send the letter by registered post asking if I would be prepared to withdraw my objection," said Mr Hampson. "I have no intention of doing so. I fought against the encroachment of the Warrington New Town into the Croft green belt area and I think that the same thing applies in this case especially as the site originally chosen for the school in Smithy Lane is still available.”

​For those who don't live locally, the school was built on Mustard Lane eventually!

---