Vistry says it wants to create ‘well-planned new neighbourhood’

Detailed plans have been submitted for a new community of 1,491 homes and a section of trunk road at North Leigh Park.

Outline permission for up to 1,700 homes at the site was approved in 2013 but a new planning application lodged with Wigan council in the past few days gives details of the layout, appearance, landscaping and scale of the majority of the proposed development.

Two parts of the wider site have previously been developed. The first close to Nel Pan Lane where 87 homes were created on either side of the new estate road by Countryside Properties in 2021.

The second is a development of 99 homes on the northern edge of the site which is accessed from Tiverton Avenue. That phase was brought forward by Bellway Homes.

A design and access statement has been published on the council’s planning portal on behalf of developer Vistry Group.

The report said: “The vision for North Leigh Park is to deliver a sustainable, well-connected and attractive new development for Wigan.

“It will deliver part of the new strategically significant highway infrastructure required to connect junction 5 of M61 with junction 26 of the M6.”

North Leigh Park is 2.6km to the north-west of Leigh town centre. Westleigh High School to the south-east of the site.

It is to the east of the A578 (Leigh Road) and covers a huge 178-acres. The site has an industrial past used for coal mining, sand extraction quarrying, industrial waste management operations, a scrap yard and a sewage treatment.

The report added: “The application for approval relates to 68 hectares of the site. The proposed development parcels have been designed to strategically avoid highly contaminated areas.

“This approach ensures that land is redeveloped in an appropriate way to ensure the protection of future occupiers.

“It comprises the residual area of the site which remains undeveloped and includes the link road.”

That road would connect Leigh Road (A578) to Atherleigh Way (A579). The site was recently announced as one of six priority housing locations selected for the Government’s New Homes Accelerator programme, aimed at overcoming planning barriers and accelerating the delivery of new affordable homes and supporting infrastructure.

Speaking in January, Matthew Parkes, managing director, Vistry Manchester and Cheshire East, said: “We are pleased to be bringing forward the next phases of North Leigh Park and continuing to work with Wigan Council, the Government and the local community to deliver much-needed new homes in this part of the borough.

“This is a significant opportunity to prevent a complex former industrial site becoming a long-term environmental problem and instead turn it into a well-planned new neighbourhood, with new homes, green spaces, local facilities and improved connections.”

The council will decide on the plans in the coming weeks.

To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.

This comes after the stocks took a severe beating earlier last week as tensions between Iran and Israel-US escalated, with no sign of a diplomatic resolution. Supply shortages began to emerge in several cities, including Mumbai and Bengaluru, with restaurants in some areas warning of possible closures due to insufficient fuel.

Trump on Monday told CBS News that he believes the war against Iran “is very complete” and that Washington was “very far ahead” of his initial four-to-five week estimated timeframe. He also told reporters that his administration was lifting sanctions on some countries as part of efforts to stabilise the oil market.

“So we have sanctions on some countries. We’re going to take those sanctions off until the Strait is up,” he said, without providing further details.

“It’s going to end soon, and if it starts up again they’ll be hit even harder,” Trump added.

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Following the remarks, crude oil prices plunged sharply after a blistering rally that had pushed prices past the $100 mark for the first time since Russia–Ukraine War began in 2022.
India imports more than 60% of its domestic LPG needs, and around 85–90% of these imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The country consumed 31.3 million tonnes of LPG in FY25, of which only 12.8 million tonnes were produced domestically.Earlier last week, the Indian government invoked emergency powers and directed oil refiners to ensure there is no shortage of LPG for domestic customers due to supply constraints arising from rising geopolitical tensions in West Asia.

Shares of Petronet LNG jumped around 5% to trade at Rs 291.5 apiece. The stock had earlier declined more than 9% last week after the company issued force majeure notices to QatarEnergy and others because vessels were unable to safely transit through the Strait of Hormuz. The possibility of traffic resuming through the critical chokepoint appears to have boosted sentiment.

Meanwhile, shares of Gujarat Gas rose about 1.6%, GAIL (India) gained more than 2%, while Indraprastha Gas Limited was up over 1%.

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Venue planned for Bathampton as there are no courts in neighbouring Bath

Plans have been submitted to build padel courts in a village next to Bath as there remain none in the city.

Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee has twice blocked plans to build the first padel courts in Bath – even though one of them was the council’s own plan. Members of the planning committee have warned that the “gunfire-like” noise of the game would harm neighbours’ mental health.

Now Smash Padel wants to build five padel courts on the former railway station in Bathampton on the edge of the city. But locals in the quiet village say they are concerned that no report on the noise impact of the courts has been submitted with the plan.

People in the village who contacted the Local Democracy Reporting Service said: “This seems to be a common reason for planning approval to be denied. Given the context of our quiet, conservation village and the topography of the surrounding countryside, this seems to be a big omission.”

Smash Padel wants to build five outdoor padel courts and a single storey pavilion made of shipping containers. The village’s railway station was closed in 1966 and the site was later used as a timber yard, but the planning application said it was now disused and “falling into a state of disrepair.”

The padel company said: “There are currently no existing padel facilities in the Bathampton area. Demand for such facilities is growing, particularly for venues to accommodate quality coaching. This is especially important for two young Bath residents who are elite athletes and currently have to travel considerable distances, notably to Smash Padel in Bicester, to access the high-level of coaching that they require.”

Padel is a sport similar to squash but plated with a solid racquet. Originally from Mexico, the sport has boomed in popularity since the Covid-19 lockdown and is one of the fastest growing sports. But there is nowhere to play the sport in Bath, as each proposal to build padel courts has been turned down by the planning committee.

Bath and North East Somerset Council originally planned to build some padel courts as part of its upgrades to Odd Down Sports Ground, but they were turned down by its own planning committee in 2024 over concerns the sound of the game would be like “Chinese water torture” for neighbours. The upgrades to the sports ground later went ahead without any padel courts.

Later that same year, the Lansdown Tennis Club proposed building padel courts but was refused planning permission over the “gunfire-like” noise. The club appealed the decision but planning inspectors upheld the planning committee’s ruling.

In addition to Smash Padel’s plans in Bathampton, the University of Bath is also trying to build the city’s first padel courts. It has included proposals to build two padel courts as part of major plans for a huge student accommodation development for 962 students at its campus The plan is still under consideration.

You can view and comment on the plan for the padel courts in Bathampton here.

To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.