by Brian Gomm

Protesters

ready for

long battle

PROTESTERS have been warned to prepare for a long battle to save farmland that developers have earmarked for an industrial estate.

Wigan Planning committee vice-chairman Cllr Steve Hellier delivered a rallying Christmas message for the many Tyldesley, Mosley Common and Boothstown people who want to save 44 acres of greenery.

It is zoned as open land in the Wigan Unitary Development Plan and as safeguarded land in the next UDP review.

But landowners Peel Development have earmarked it for an 'employment park' and the ultimate fate of the land between Garrett Hall Lane, Tyldesley and Chaddock Lane at Boothstown will be decided after a public inquiry provisionally scheduled for next June.

Flood risk

The inquiry was called after Peel Development appealed against Wigan MBC's non-determination of their planning application. The Council said it couldn't make a decision because insufficient information had been given to them about flood risk and endangered species.

And Cllr Hellier said at a meeting of Wigan planning committee: "It seems in order to get permission they are trying to bulldoze the Council and the planning system. This is not the end of it.

"They will continue to try to develop this bit of land. People should still prepare to continue the fight. This development will not benefit the community. It is in the wrong place.

"We regard it as our Green Belt although technically it isn't. It acts as a buffer and thus prevents the the communities of Astley, Tyldesley and Mosley Common coalescing. We need it to prevent urban sprawl.

"It isn't Green Belt but we want it designated as safeguarded land in the UDP. Peel have appealed against our non-determination which in effect prevents us from determining the application."

But planners decided that if there had been no appeal and they had been able to vote on the development they would have refused the scheme.

The authority was bombarded with 291 written objections, and a 707 name petition against outline plans for an employment park, roads and landscaping plus a 1.7 hectare nature site.

One Garrett Hall primary pupil pleaded with planners to "help us conquer this and save us and our wildlife" and echoed locals' fears about traffic problems, pollution and the effects on the environment.

The fields are attached to Chaddock Lane Farm and grazed by a prize winning dairy herd from nearby Garrett Hall Farm.

The redundant William Hare's steel works site at Gin Pit could be flattened for housing.

Cheshire-based Bett Homes North West have applied to Wigan Council for permission to build 146 homes on the former collieries workshop site off Meanley Road.