HOUSES MUST BE SPREAD OUT

THERE are plenty of housing developments planned in Rossendale with 3,000 planned in the next 15 years.

If I may focus on Bacup nearly 900 houses are to be built mainly on green spaces, creating a huge estate.

About 90 will be so called affordable housing, plus around 200 – 300 apartments are pencilled in around the town centre using the bingo hall and the old market hall.

Yet nobody seems to be planning the infrastructure to accommodate the increase in traffic, doctors and schools which is the remit of Lancashire County Council (LCC), an increase of 1,000 + cars all travelling through the town centre where there appears, to the untrained eye, no room for extra roads, no bypass opportunities or even road widening.

Perhaps if we had a different political party in power a different view may have been taken on some of the proposed planning developments which LCC highways Dept could have effectively scuppered

At the heart of this is the government obsession to build houses without looking at the topography of the area.

These extra houses in Bacup will be put into a small space creating a builtup area, leading to a decline in the quality of life for the current inhabitants with constant traffic jams, noise pollution and pollution from cars/ waggons.

There needs to be a sensible debate on how many people the valley can sustain and where they should be and not just shoehorned into a convenient parcel of public owned land.

If private land must be purchased for it to be used for building then so be it.

These 3,000+ houses need to be spread across the valley not just put in Bacup and Edenfield.

It is time we looked at the needs of everyone and not just those that can afford large houses and gardens.

Local people need small parcels of land near their homes where they know the children will be safe, where people can walk their dogs and where people can just enjoy nature.

I honestly don’t believe that is too much to ask for,

We are lucky in Bacup, we do have Stubbylee park. However it is a prohibitive distance for many, especially where the planned houses are.

Alan Boon

Pennine Road

Bacup