There are also a number of smaller sites (planned or under development) of < 10 dwellings:
Church of the Nazarene, Church St; Kearsley House, Daisy Hill; Fourgates (Darlington Cars); Albany Fold, Howarth Street; Gorsey Grove, Green Meadows; Barnfield, Captain Lees Road; St. John's Wingates, Chorley Road; Mill Street, Pavilion Square.

Rejected or Withdrawn Planning Applications

Referred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Bellhouse Hartwell.
Sometimes referred to as Green Vale Works, this 76 dwelling scheme off Leigh Road was 'approved' by Bolton Planners… There were reasons to reject this proposal: traffic, demolition of buildings without permission, 200 local objections, concern from the local MP and development within the Green Belt. The application was been 'called in' by the ODPM due to a discrepancy under PPG2 policy guidance, meaning that statutory planning policy guidelines were not followed. The application has since come up for Public Enquiry (21-22 March, 2006) for scrutiny , the decision taken out of the hands of Bolton MBC: the multi-million pound scheme could be approved or rejected.

The Council and Developer arguing that this prestige development will be beneficial to the area, providing much needed housing - 7 of which will be 'affordable'; and that it is better to develop the site rather than return it to its previous natural state. These 'affordable homes' are likely to be priced in the £200k + bracket. We imagine lots of 'key workers' being first in the queue!

July 2006 - Planning Inspector approves this scheme.. Work under way late 2007.

Rejected: Islamic Academy, Wingates Lane.
A 500 plus bed college. After several revisions and its third submission, this application was finally discussed at the Planning Committee meeting (3/3/05). The key problem being – Inappropriate development in greenbelt land. This caused a storm locally; with residents voicing their objections. Planning Committee upheld the views of the planning officers who deemed the development 'inappropriate'. After hearing both sides of the argument the application was turned down by a 2:1 majority. SWAN welcome this decision - it was the right decision on planning grounds. On this occasion the political murmurrings colouring this applicaton did not affect the decision. Update (9/6/05) - Planning Committee approved the scheme for an Islamic teaching centre at the Willows Lane nunnery building in Deane, which was "up for demolishion" if the scheme did not go ahead.

Initially rejected: Westhoughton Cricket Club.
84 dwellings in "land swap" – house building to fund club relocation. Deemed incompatible with (Planning Policy Guidance) PPG17 – Open Spaces. Could have set a precedent for recreational land development in the borough - and prompted a free for all, and consequent loss of recreational open space.

Now aproved.
In 2007 the Developer came back with a revised scheme involving the building of a new Sainsbury's supermarket. Despite objections, this scheme was approved in January 2008, allowing the Cricket Club to move to The Hoskers. Anticipated time to complete the move/works 18 months to 2 years.

Planning Policy

Spring 2004 - HM Treasury commissioned Barker Report>> Review and download the report (PDF format).

The Gist: build more houses to bring the price of houses down! A supply and demand approach. However, the housing problem is really that of an overheating property market predominately in the south east of England. This report could affect planning policy across the whole of the country.

Put simply, it is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and the wrong solution when multiple, regional solutions are needed. A significant problem is clearly the easy supply of money, and people’s eagerness to take on debt – £1 trillion of it – inflating prices (house prices overvalued by 30% according to NIESR).

At a recent meeting with John Prescott MP, SWAN highlighted the problem of urban regeneration of town centres. The Policy assumes that brownfield sites will fall within inner urban areas. However, these brownfield sites are occurring not in the inner areas but in the greenbelt, that is, within the Bolton borough, brownfield policy is being used by developers to develop non-urban areas like Westhoughton, Blackrod and Horwich… and not the deprived inner urban areas in need of attention like Halliwell, Burnden, Derby wards. According to HPI/ODPM 2004 report there are some 5000 vacant properties in Bolton!

The Donut effect!

Urban areas fall into further decline… and contrary to policy, urbanisation heads outwards. This is not sustainable. Inner Urban Areas become less desirable to live in; the more desirable outer areas lose open space. There is a duplication of infrastructure (schools, roads, doctors etc…), and a stretching of limited recourses, creating increasingly poorer inner urban areas with associated problems (crime, poverty, no-go areas!).

Back to top