A decision by town planners to approve more than 350 new homes across three former Green Belt sites in Winwick, Croft and Hollins Green has been met with condemnation from local residents and councillors.
At a lengthy Development Management Committee meeting earlier this week, the first three planning applications to come forward on former Green Belt land were up for a decision, following the approval of the new Warrington Local Plan.
Outline planning permission regarding access at Hollins Green, Rixton, together with full planning permission at Deacon’s Close in Croft and Golborne Road in Winwick, were approved by the committee despite many objections received from the community, Parish Councils and Borough Councillors. The Rixton development will proceed with full planning at a later date, with the other sites approved subject to Section 106 agreements being put in place.
The evening saw residents and Parish and Borough Councillors speaking against the developments, with the developers and their consultants speaking in favour.
With reference to the Golborne Road development, local resident Andy Griffiths commented:“We are disappointed with the decision to proceed with the development, especially in its current form. Not only does it fail to address issues around traffic and facilities, but here we are, two weeks after the approval of the new Local Plan, and already developers are wanting to expand the areas which were allocated for housing. The Golborne Road development will include 8m of land across the width of the plot which is still in the Green Belt, while it was perfectly possible to comply with the Local Plan in terms of the number of houses required without this. We are very concerned that this now sets a precedent, and we’ll see our precious Green Belt eroded little by little over the lifetime of this plan which was supposed to protect it!”
The Hollins Green site
Winwick resident Stuart Mann, and Independent Winwick Parish Councillor James Herron, also added:“We highlighted in the meeting that the proposed allocation of S106 monies was not protected for spending within Winwick, with proposed funding going to areas a significant distance from the village. We are glad that the Committee agreed with us and asked that an amendment to the approval was included in that these monies should be spent locally in Winwick wherever possible and include funding to address speed limits in the vicinity of the development. However, it is disappointing that they did not take the opportunity to help address the traffic issues in the village, which will only get worse with the compound effect of this development together with Parkside and Peel Hall. We will now move to ensuring that the developer and WBC honour their commitments to our village and parish.”
The Planning Consultant for Croft Parish Council spoke of his concern that the housing allocation on land taken out of the green belt for the sites in North Warrington was being developed all at the same time, even though the plan was designed for the land to be released over time.
No concern was raised by the Committee, even when the health and safety of school children, disruption to education or safety on village roads was highlighted.
Deacons Close Croft
Cllr Valerie Allen (Culcheth Glazebury & Croft) spoke on behalf of the community of Croft, saying: “The cumulative impact of this development of 90 houses in Croft, plus 154 houses to neighbouring Winwick and in a further 110 just down the road in Hollins Green, must be considered in the round. Surely 350 extra houses in North Warrington on green belt must be a cause for concern, not to mention a further 200 coming forward in Culcheth’, she spoke passionately about the village, it’s lack of amenities and the stress that 90 new houses at Deacons Close would put on Doctors and the NHS.
Cllr Carol Benson (Culcheth Glazebury & Croft) spoke about the contamination of land on the site at Deacons Close, including methane and other hazardous substances, poor drainage systems and the Environment Agency concerns over the water table, adding that the site is on a ground water protection zone due to a principal aquifer and UU extract water nearby.
Cllr Wendy Maisey (Culcheth, Glazebury & Croft) added: “So the Deacons Close development of 80+ houses was pushed through by Labour councillors last night, including a Labour Cllr on the committee who lives in Croft… voted for it no questions asked. Will they ever listen to the voice of residents? It seems not. Your Conservative Borough Councillors submitted a petition earlier this year to the town hall that was signed by almost 400 local residents and their names were listed as objections by WBC, however, it still as passed last night thanks to Labour. I feel so much for the local residents and the precedence now seems to have been set for Labour’s disastrous local plan to rip through our town at all costs.’
1 Comment
Surely there is a law against what has happened to our Greenbelt by this absolutely not fit for purpose planning dept in Warrington. Everyone of the councillors who voted these destructive applications through without a single reference to the people who all objected with overwhelmingly valid points, and objecting within the law of the governments own guidelines which this shoddy crew rode roughshod over should be made to resign. Lets hope they all get voted out by their communities. They were all led by the planners who had all had ‘lengthy’ discussions with the so called ‘developers’ although that is a generous name given to these so called humans who love nothing more than concreting over our countryside and destroying what little bit of nature and wildlife we have left to make themseves pots of money at the cost of our environment.
If anyone can get hold of Warrington planning dept do let me know as I have tried and failed many times as they only answer their phone in the afternoons (good luck getting them to answer by the way) as you are not allowed to call them in the mornings, unless I suppose you want to build thousands of houses on our greenbelt then I suppose they will make an exception.