HOPE TO SEE PLANS SINK

THE borough council has given Taylor Wimpey the go ahead to build 131 houses on the land between Grane Road and Holcombe Road in spite of over 3,000 objections.

I myself submitted five detailed and carefully researched papers and I don’t think the planning committee paid any attention to any of them.

The planning office went through the motions of taking in my and hundreds of other objections and disregarded them.

The planners were fully aware that this development had little to do with Rossendale’s housing needs.

Most of the houses would be bought by outsiders with higher-thanaverage incomes earned in the Greater Manchester and Greater Preston areas.

It was set up to be a commuters’ paradise.

The people of Grane are furious at this decision to destroy this much-valued tract of green open space.

Moreover there are many discontented people in Haslingden who think that they live in a neglected part of the borough and they are subject to diktats from Rawtenstall and Bacup.

My only wish now is that [this] tract of ancient mossland will sink into the metres-deep slurry of shifting sand and waterlogged gravel that they will churn up.

The likelihood of this is mentioned in their own ground survey.

[And that] then the [developer] will abandon the scheme at considerable loss to themselves.

Then who will come and clear up the mess?

Tony Hodbod,

Grane Road,

Haslingden