Councillor accuses housing developer of ‘bullying’ tactics
UNPOPULAR PLANS FOR 200 HOMES ON PLAYING FIELDS APPROVED
CONTROVERSIAL plans to build 200 homes on former playing fields have been approved – despite a huge backlash from the local community.
Bellway Homes successfully applied for permission to build the new development, at St George’s playing fields in Walkden, off Hilton Lane, weeks after their initial application was rejected by the town hall because of traffic concerns.
But developers have failed to win over their new neighbours; some 80 per cent of people who received letters about the plans objected to them, a planning panel heard at a meeting, while Salford MP Barbara Keeley and local councillors also objected.
And Walkden councillor Richard Critchley accused the developer of ‘bullying’ the council after Bellway suggested they would request a public inquiry and appeal for costs from the council over the original rejection.
He said: “Just three weeks later the same application comes back and you’re expected to change your mind – that’s insulting.”
Local residents raised objections on several issues – including the loss of green space, strain on public services, pollution and increased traffic.
And they said that the proposed development was driving people out of the local community.
But the planning panel backed recommendations by town hall officers to approve the 209-home development.
Council planning documents had pointed to the 20pc affordable housing included within the scheme, and also highlighted the £1.6m in section 106 money that would go towards community projects, a large proportion of which is earmarked for traffic calming measures and pedestrian connections around Hilton Lane.
Some of the houses have also been allocated to the town hall’s burgeoning council house building organisation, Derive.
Town hall officers also pointed out – despite huge community opposition around traffic – that they’d received no objection from the highway authority about it, who predicted the increase in traffic would be low.
But residents told councillors that the existing congestion means passengers are stuck for an hour in the mornings in traffic.
One woman said she had moved from Wigan to reduce her commute each day but found that it now takes longer. The trains are so packed it’s difficult to get on them in the morning, she said. Another local said that the pollution is so bad along Hilton Lane that she can ‘taste the fumes’ when she walks her child to and from school each day, pointing out that Salford has one of the highest rates of pollution in the country.
In July, concerns around increased traffic on already over-capacity roads were enough to see the plans rejected. Councillors pointed out at the time that the developers themselves recommended residents shop online to reduce car journeys.
But hall officers said that existing traffic problems should not be taken into account in planning decisions, only the potential effect of the development, which was not considered to be ‘severe.’ Planning chief Derek Antrobus said that while he had sympathy for nearby residents, the solution to environmental concerns is ‘not to stop people from living in homes ... they’ve got to live somewhere.’
But the threat of the development was leading to a mass exodus of existing residents, objectors said.
One local resident, Michael Searle, told councillors that there are ‘25 or so’ houses advertised on property site Rightmove, calling it a ‘real damning indictment of where we are.’
One objector said Bellway had made ‘thinly veiled threats’ to the council by suggesting that it would appeal the original decision to reject the proposal, and urged the panel: “Hold your nerve, stand up to Bellway.”
And another told the panel that to approve the application would be to vote against ‘the will of the people.’
Bellway’s representative told officers that the developer would ‘rather not’ pursue an inquiry into the original application.
He had argued that no statutory authority opposed their plans, and said that the site had actually been allocated by the town hall for housing.
And he pointed out that the developer had increased the amount of money it would put towards local community projects. The planning panel voted in favour of the development, with two councillors – Lewis Nelson and Karen Garrido – voting against it.
The same application comes back and you’re expected to change your mind – that’s insulting Coun Richard Critchley