Wigan rejects Standish housing plan

Wigan Council has rejected an application from Persimmon Homes and Morris Homes for a housing development in Standish.

The proposal for 250 homes on the site of a former golf course off Rectory Lane was rejected by the planning committee yesterday, on the basis there was already enough new houses planned for the area. Two councillors objected during the meeting, and 23 letters of objection were received.

The application was for phase two of a 500-home scheme. Phase one, which includes 250-units alongside leisure facilities to replace the golf course, was approved in January. The second phase was to sit alongside the first site and use the same access points.

The developers were represented by Mosaic Town Planning.

In 2013 a planning inspector recommended that 1,000 homes be built around Golborne, Lowton and Standish to accomodate Wigan’s housing shortfall. The council opposed the decision, saying at the time that inspector had “failed to provide any rationale for his verdicts.”

In the rejection statement for the proposal, the planning committee said that it has already granted permission for 1,042 new homes in Standish – meeting the government’s required total and meaning further developments can be refused. The council said that the decision shows “it is willing to stand up for residents”.

The committee ruled that there were insufficient grounds to increase the planned number of new homes beyond the 1,000 put forward by the Government. It was also found the impact on traffic in the area would be too severe.

It is understood that in 2012/2013, there were 215 new homes built in Wigan, compared to a policy target of 1,000.

Cllr David Molyneux, deputy leader of Wigan Council, said: “This underlines how seriously we’re taking the concerns of residents in Standish who are worried about the level of house building in the area.

“The government – against our wishes – required 1,000 homes should be built in Standish. Although we opposed this, we concluded the best course of action was to adapt to the government’s demands and secure the best deal for Standish – by prioritising affordable housing and payments to fund improvements. Our assessments showed approximately 1,000 could be built in the area – as long as there was infrastructure investment.”