Northern Trust receives EIA verdict
West Lancashire Council has told the developer that an environmental impact assessment will be required as it seeks to advance plans for 360 homes in Aughton.
Stantec is advising Northern Trust on the project, which aims to establish an outline consent for residential on land north of New Lane and east of Black Moss Lane.
On the north-eastern fringe of Aughton, the site is also close to the southern outskirts of Ormskirk, and is around 250m from the Aughton Park Merseyrail station.
As set out in West Lancs’ report assessing the screening request submitted by the application team, the site is entirely within the Green Belt and is a mix of grade one agricultural land and ‘urban classification’.
The site amounts to just shy of 30 acres and sits just to the east of the current Aughton settlement boundary, bordered by New Lane to the south, Black Moss Lane to the west and Scarth Hill Lane to the east.
The site’s topography is relatively flat and there are no public rights of way crossing the site. It previously formed part of the local authority’s emerging allocation SP8 within its draft local plan, which comprised a strategic urban extension to the south of Ormskirk.
However, the West Lancashire Local Plan Review – initially intended for 2012-2050 – was officially withdrawn and abandoned in September 2019 by the council’s cabinet.
Aughton has seen a recent approval of scale, with West Lancs greenlighting a 122-dwelling proposal from Wain Homes off Prescot Road in June.
Although no detailed plans are available at this stage, documents associated with the Northern Trust application to date can be viewed on the West Lancs planning portal, reference 2026/0392/SCR.
Houses should never be built on grade 1 agricultural land. I read recently that a food security impact assessment will also be needed. Planners take note and reject this .
By Frank
Non of this is urban – they need to get their facts right. How do their directors sleep at night
By Anon
Will West Lancs and the compliant Inspectorate have the guts to reject this. As others have pointed out this is grade 1 agricultural land , what price food security? There is plenty of land in Skelmersdale for housing it never reached it’s New Town target.
By Anonymous
Is reporting on the outcome of an EIA screening request not a bit of a non story?
By Anonymous