Next step for key Oldham allocations
A draft supplementary planning document will go to consultation, as the council looks to prepare the way for up to 1,700 homes across Beal Valley and Broadbent Moss.
A group of housebuilders with land ownerships in the area are working with Oldham to advance plans for housing schemes in the area – Beal Valley and Broadbent Moss are both strategic housing allocations within Greater Manchester’s Places for Everyone spatial plan, and the developers have already led a consultation process, last summer.
These allocations have however also become a lightning rod for political wrangles within Oldham.
Citing concerns over Green Belt development, opposition councillors a year ago tried unsuccessfully to pull Oldham out of PfE. This was followed late in 2025 by Conservatives on the council securing backing for a motion that the borough’s strategic allocations should each require an SPD ahead of development taking place.
With council leader Cllr Arooj Shah expressing frustration, this additional consultation was thus triggered.
Kellen Homes, one of the developers involved, has now submitted plans for 248 homes east of Bullcote Lane with partner Grasscroft Homes & Property, so the clock is ticking. Casey, Barratt Redrow, and Wain Homes are also involved in projects within the area.
As a whole, the development of Beal Valley and Broadbent Moss would see parts of the countryside areas between Heyside, Royton and Shaw to the west, and Sholver and Moorside to the east, developed on.
A new east-west link road, a Metrolink stop at Cop Road and 11 acres of employment space are part of the masterplan.
As set out in the report to cabinet, the draft SPD indicates capacity for around 1,700 new homes – although greater than the 1,450 talked of in 2025, this remains a lower total than the combined capacity of 1,930 homes for the two allocations (JPA10 and JPA12) as set out in PfE.
The officer report said that “this has been informed by the desire to retain and enhance more green space and biodiversity. However, the Council will continue to seek the effective and efficient use of the development parcels across both allocations”.
Cabinet resolved to approve the report, meaning consultation can begin.
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Analysis - Commentary
How Oldham is turning plans into places with momentum
Oldham has always been a place shaped by community, heritage and momentum, writes Emma Barton of Oldham Council. Since 2024, that momentum has been clear by the visible, on-the-ground delivery across the borough, where plans have become places and Oldham’s defining regeneration story is being told.
This is one of the worst located places for a development of this size in the whole of Oldham. If it goes ahead, traffic issues will be huge in the area. The proposed East – West new road will pump large volumes of traffic towards the Saddleworth end onto Ripponden Road, from where it will have to make it’s way back through Oldham to reach Manchester, the motorways etc. The Metrolink is of little benefit here, it does not get most people to where they want to go and many are unwilling to use it due to proven continual safety issues. Site conditions – flooding issues, drainage, sewerage etc are poor. It seems there is a rush on by the council to have produced these documents, approve them, put them out to consultation and further adopt them before the May local elections when a change of control of the council is very likely. Hopefully the council will not succeed, and a rejuvenated council make up will take a sensible decision to think again and at least massively slash the size of this proposal and look to much better located land for the required build numbers. If green land is to be used, at least make sure it is the best located without the drawbacks of this site.
By K. W.
It’s striking to see this “next step” framed as progress when the foundational planning framework is still fundamentally under-prepared. The Broadbent Moss/Beal Valley allocations are perhaps the most strategically significant sites in Oldham’s housing pipeline — adjacent to Metrolink, earmarked for thousands of homes and infrastructure — yet what is being consulted now is, in substance, a permissive brochure rather than a regulatory code.
As currently drafted the SPD does not embed the adopted Plan’s density expectations into mapped minimums linked to accessibility. It does not require comparative testing of alternative typologies, transport scenarios or parking regimes in a manner that would demonstrate whether higher-density, transit-oriented outcomes are viable. It lacks independent design review, governance arrangements across multiple landowners, or monitoring and corrective mechanisms. The consequence is obvious: developers can — and already have — justified low-density, suburban outcomes adjacent to a proposed rapid transit stop, simply because the SPD does not preclude them.
This isn’t nimbyism or a debate about greenbelt per se — it is a procedural and regulatory failure. Without firm, spatially defined parameters tied to policy minima, what’s being promulgated is effectively what industry wants, not what the Plan requires.
If Oldham Council wants to avoid repeating the cycle seen in live applications — where permissive guidance becomes precedent — this SPD must be redrafted with enforceable controls and publicly evidenced testing, not just “consulted” for appearance’s sake.
By Anonymous