A NUMBER of households in the Hindley Green area have recently received notification of a planning application to develop 9.5ha. of land for residential purposes (outline) at Belvedere Farm, Carr Common Road, a sizeable area of land behind the Taylor Road estate.

If this development is approved the results will be:

1. ACCESS - not directly off the main road but via residential roads already used for street parking, exiting on to Swan Lane which is already heavily used by industrial vehicles and Corner Lane/Atherton Road, also used for parking and cited as unsuitable for increased traffic by the Council and the Department of Transport in the early 1990s.

2. CONGESTION - already unmanageable at peak periods.

3. SAFETY - consider the three primary and one junior school in the immediate area and large number of resident children using the side streets to play. There are existing concerns about Taylor Road/Stuart Avenue being used as a "rat run".

4. POLLUTION - additional homes to those already recently built in Hindley Green with the associated extra car journeys will obviously undermine the quality of air. Research indicates that pollution from traffic is more dangerous than smoking and increases risk of other allergies such as hay fever and dust mite. Open spaces such as the proposed site are the area's last green lungs, vital as a buffer zone for noise and for filtering out traffic and industrial pollution.

5. LOSS OF AMENITY/CHARACTER - the site proposed for the development represents the last sizeable remnant of a once semi-rural district and leads directly on to the last green fields between the Wigan and Bolton boundaries. Local people extensively use this land and its footpaths in the absence of any municipal facilities. All other open spaces in Hindley Green have been or are being developed.

6. DEVALUATION OF PROPERTY - first time owners are re-selling new properties on estates still under construction in Hindley Green. Older type properties at present are slow, if not impossible to sell at a fair asking price. Increased competition from even more new houses will compound this situation, resulting in equity being further reduced should buyers eventually be found.

The application is available for inspection at the Civic Buildings, Wigan and at Hindley District Office. Those residents who will be directly or indirectly affected by the proposed development, or who feel it is time to call a halt before Hindley Green becomes totally urbanised are asked to submit written objections to be received by July 10 1999 at the latest to Borough Planning Officer, J.P. Sloane, WMBC, Civic Buildings, New Market Street, Wigan, WN1 1RP.

John Vickers

Carr Common Road

Hindley Green

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