Impact of 4,000 proposed homes could affect us all
THE publication of the new draft Local Plan for Rossendale – the document which states where the council is minded to permit development in the future – is no doubt bound to result in much debate.
The last one, after all, had to be scrapped after the council was swamped with complaints about the council’s proposals, which included finding space to build 2,900 homes.
The new plan, which covers the period up to 2034, suggests an extra 4,000 homes will be required – around an extra 265 a year. It places a particular focus on affordable housing, ‘aspirational’ homes for families looking to upsize and specialist housing for a growing elderly population.
No doubt the list of proposed housing sites will be a source of much discussion. Five 100+ housing developments are planned in years to come.
In Eastgate, Whitworth, 111 new homes are planned, 106 are scheduled for land off the Grane Road just outside Haslingden, 151 off Cowtoot Lane in Bacup, 105 on Newchurch Road just outside Rawtenstall and 273 off Market Street, Edenfield.
The residents of Edenfield will, I suspect, feel particularly aggrieved as during the lifetime of the plan, up to 300 more homes could be built in their village. That’s not just a natural expansion of a village, that’s a complete transformation in the space of a few years.
Accompanying the proposed local plan is an analysis of the infrastructure in the area. Of particular interest is the local transport and education infrastructure notes.
There seems to be little real prospect of any meaningful improvements to the local roads network, which is, in parts, in a pretty sorry state. The A56/M66 is either a nightmare these days or something people moan about for the sake of it, depending on how often you use it.
But there’s no getting away from the fact that 4,000-odd new homes is quite likely to make our roads busier, more congested and potentially quite a lot less safe.
Talk of smart motorways – opening up the hard shoulder to regular traffic and variable speed limits – are just that, talk at the moment, and the likelihood of the East Lancashire steam railway ever re-opening for regular rail services appear to have been shunted into the sidings after the latest cost projections suggested it would cost £50m to bring up to standard.
Then there’s schools. According to the infrastructure document, Lancashire County Council predicts that in parts of the borough, school places will be over-subscribed within five years. Such a situation is never good news. It means people have to travel further to drop children at school and house prices around schools perceived to be good rise sharply.
LCC’s preferred approach is to expand existing primary schools as demand grows. Just imagine the impact on some schools should these large new estates suddenly start popping up.
Then, of course, there’s management of water. We’re a Valley prone to flooding, we all know that – what impact will 4,000 new houses have? Is it possible to build 4,000 new homes which aren’t at risk of flooding?
And health services – we all know it can be hard to get a GP appointment at the best of times. If Rossendale is expected to find 4,000 new homes, what of the rest of East Lancashire? What pressure will that put on our already stretched local hospitals?