Planners warn development could mean ‘subsequent pressure to restrict the current and future activities of businesses’
Bellway provided a site layout for the proposed 83-home estate in Atherton
Plans to develop a patch of green land into an 83-home estate have been rejected.
Bellway Homes had proposed to build the houses on land close to Tyldesley Old Road and Douglas Road, Atherton, immediately next to the Chanters industrial estate.
The developer described its vision for the estate as ‘creating a sustainable urban extension for the area by working with the sites own features and wider landscape character’.
But planners at Wigan council have this week rejected the project, saying any future occupiers of the homes could be affected by the industrial nature of the area because of its proximity and the noise from Chanters employment park.
A planning report said: “Officers have concluded that the proposed development conflicts with policies within the local plan in that it cannot be satisfactorily delivered.
“The applicant has failed to address these site constraints effectively through the provision of physical and green infrastructure needed.
“Furthermore, officers have concluded that if the development was delivered if would lead to subsequent pressure to restrict the current and future activities of businesses within the industrial estate.
“The proposed development would not achieve an acceptable standard of residential amenity in relation to noise.”
In a design and access statement supporting the plans, Bellway said the site area covers 8.28 acres and is bounded by ‘roads, residential and light industrial commercial buildings together with open land and woodland’.
The report said: “The site is located within a predominantly residential area and is bounded by existing houses to the west across Douglas Road.
“The site is also bound by light industrial and commercial infrastructure to the east and south, as well as open land and woodland to the north.”
It characterised the land as being in ‘a suburban residential area’. The council received 15 objections to the application.
Among the reasons given for opposition were ‘future residents would be impacted by proximity to industrial estate’, that Douglas Road is not wide enough for proposed access and that it is too close to electricity pylons and overhead lines.
Ward councillor Debra Wailes also objected. She said the site was a natural buffer between the houses on Douglas Road and the Chanters industrial estate and the mature tree line which supports this buffer zone would be destroyed.