Council served up green land on plate for builders
THIS week, hundreds of people in Haslingden and Helmshore will feel let down by Rossendale Council (see page four).
They were vocal in their opposition to plans for 130-plus homes on land right on the edge of the Valley’s green boundary, and expressed concerns about the impact Taylor Wimpey’s plans would have.
Legitimate concerns were raised about the impact on the environment, on the animals which lived there, the impact on flooding bear in mind the site is downhill from three huge reservoirs and in an area where flooding is known to occur when it rains too much - and the impact on local roads.
After all, the Grane Road is hardly the safest road in Rossendale, is it, with its junction with Holcombe Road particularly unpleasant.
It’s off Holcombe Road that these new homes will now spring up.
Passing the plans on Tuesday evening, the council appears once again fallen back on the
‘our hands are tied’ argument.
It’s an argument this column has long had sympathy with - the idea that councillors can just decide, based on public opinion, what should and shouldn’t be built in Rossendale, is fanciful.
They are tied up by planning rules and regulations, set by Westminster - thus it’s often disingenuous for Tory councillors to line up with opponents to developments, given it’s the MPs they support into office making the laws - and also have the risk of developers appealing if the council goes against those Government rules.
But the people who opposed the development of the green field off Holcombe Road aren’t a bunch of shallow NIMBYs.
They have fought these plans for over two years, and have researched carefully what the impact will be.
However, it’s possible they were always fighting a losing battle.
Not because their arguments aren’t legitimate, but because Rossendale Council has already provisionally allocated the site for development in its Local Plan.
So this decision is not a case of councillors having their hands tied.
They set the table with the Local Plan, therefore had no choice but to serve dinner on it.
In this case, this is a development which has come about thanks to local development.
“The site is allocated for housing in the emerging Local Plan,” is the phrase that did for the campaigners.
And it’s not a phrase written in London, but one written in Rossendale.
By the people who run our council.
Local councillor Alan Woods, newly elected in the summer, made the point on Facebook that he felt there was enough in the application for the
council to have rejected it.
A quick look at housing developments rejected nationwide would suggest he is right.
But Coun Jackie Oakes, a Labour councillor who sits on the planning committee, argued that refusal would just lead to a £150,000 bill for fighting it when Taylor Wimpey appealed to Government planning inspectors.
Best give up then seems to be the message there - a terrible state of affairs for anyone who cares about Rossendale’s countryside.
Cllr Oakes, writing on Facebook, also told people upset at the decision to stop sniping at councillors, because it
achieves nothing.
The sad reality is that when push came to shove, Rossendale’s planning committee would have had to turn against the council’s own Local Plan to reject the development.
Blame for these houses therefore does belong with Rossendale Council, and the council leadership that turned this patch of muchneeded green space over to developers.
That’s not sniping, that’s just reality.
We should defend the right of local people to have their say on the decisions taken by the people we elect to hold local office.