Borough urged to oppose J5 scheme
HYNDBURN council is being urged to object to neighbouring Blackburn with Darwen’s Local Plan over its designation of 94 acres of countryside for employment use.
The commercial development of the ‘Green Belt’ land near the M65’s Junction 5 has proved highly controversial with local residents.
Campaigners believe radioactive waste was dumped down old mineshafts on the land between Belthorn and Guide in the 1950s. Despite their fears, Blackburn with Darwen Council included the green belt site in its draft local plan as ideal for commercial and job-creating development.
Now Hyndburn council’s Conservative group deputy leader Coun Peter Britcliffe has urged the authority’s cabinet to object to its neighbour’s planning blueprint until 2037. He said the ‘industrial development’ will have a damaging impact on Belthorn just across the border in Hyndburn.
Coun Britcliffe said: “Can we object to Blackburn with Darwen’s Local Plan? It proposed the industrial development of green belt land near Belthorn. I believe this will impinge on Belthorn, where we have an idyllic village.”
MP Sara Britcliffe has objected to the land being zoned for employment use in the plan.
Monte, owned by EG Group founders Mohsin and Zuber Issa, has secured a legal interest in the land which Blackburn with Darwen regeneration boss Coun Phil Riley claims is more than a kilometre away from the mineshaft where radioactive waste is allegedly buried.
Hyndburn Labour leader Coun Miles Parkinson said: “We are a statutory consultee. We will have the opportunity to comment on Blackburn with Darwen’s Local Plan.”
The debate came as the cabinet agreed Hyndburn’s own draft local plan for 2022 to 2037.
Coun Parkinson said: “Our last local plan was in 1995. It is a major piece of work moving forward. We have managed to keep most of the development away from green belt land and on brownfield sites.
“The two big housing developments are Huncoat Garden Village and around Rishton, which has been controversial.
“Change is always controversial but change will always happen. Stagnation would not be the way to move forward. We need to attract and retain people in the borough in high-quality housing.”
The Hyndburn plan will be put out for further consultation and then submitted to government for assessment by an inspector with a view to adoption in late 2023 or early 2024.