Grey Belt pitch made as 180-home Woodhouses scheme submitted

North Lumb Farm wants to establish outline planning permission for a development north of the village, bringing it closer to Failsworth’s built-up area.

Place reported in June that the applicant, which is working with planner Pegasus Group, had been told by Oldham Council that an Environmental Impact Assessment would not be required as part of its application.

As reported at that time, a level of local opposition is already mobilised in what has become a contentious area for housing, where Jones Homes struggled to secure a consent in spring 2025.

Since then, and immediately neighbouring the North Lumb Farm site, plans are also now in the works from Redwaters Estates for 68 homes, to be built south of housing on Argyll Park Road in Failsworth.

With Lords Brook running between the sites, development of the two schemes would narrow the gap that currently exists between Woodhouses village and the main built-up area of Failsworth – although substantial areas of public open space would remain between the two developments, as part of the plans submitted.

Since the Redwaters application was validated in March, more than 600 comments have been registered on Oldham’s planning portal.

Along with Pegasus, the North Lumb Farm professional team includes Eddisons, Collington Winter, Tyler Grange, and Geo Investigations.

The site is 20.4 acres, and sits west of Failsworth Road and north of Medlock Road.

The application team proposes 117 market-sale homes, and 63 affordable homes to be made available through different tenures. Around 7.4 acres would be left as green/open space.

Pegasus Group sets out the case for approval by pointing out Oldham’s far from sparkling supply situation, which it estimates at 3.13 years of deliverable housing supply at the time of submission, with a “substantial shortfall” in affordable provision.

The consultancy also declares that the project meets the government’s criteria for Grey Belt development. Pegasus argues that:

• Part of the site constitutes previously developed land, adding that in any case the site is located adjacent to a defined village, and does not strongly contribute to key Green Belt purposes identified in national policy
• The site does not suffer from any NPPF footnote 7 constraints that would represent a strong reason to refuse the planning application
• The development of the site would not fundamentally undermine the wider Green Belt within the plan area
• There is a demonstrated unmet housing need as the council’s evidence does not robustly demonstrate that it is able to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply
• The proposal complies with the NPPF Golden Rules through enhanced affordable housing, infrastructure contributions and publicly accessible green space.

To learn more, head to Oldham Council’s planning portal, using the reference OUT/356591/26.