Wigan rejects Bellway’s 83-home pitch

Close proximity to Chanters Industrial Estate was the root of the council’s decision to refuse the housebuilder’s plans for a mix of two-bed, three-bed, and four-bed houses on a five-acre greenfield site off Douglas Road in Atherton.

Bellway had hoped to build 14 two-bed properties, 55 three-bed ones, and 14 four-bed homes on the site, which had been allocated for “new development” in the local plan – this meant that it could be used for housing or employment.

However, given the site’s location next to Chanters Industrial Estate, officers said they would need more robust evidence that physical and green infrastructure provided would be sufficient to ensure that future residents would not be troubled by the noise of their next-door neighbour.

Officers also felt that if the application was approved, it would lead to restrictions on the industrial estate’s operations.

Accordingly, Wigan Council’s planning team issued its negative verdict on the project on last Thursday.

Bellway’s project team for the scheme includes DEP Landscape Architecture, Urban Design Group, Townsend Water Engineering, Redmore Environmental, E3P, Eddisons, Red’s Acoustics, JSP Sustainability, Paul Martin, ADP, and Pegasus Group. You can learn more about the application by searching reference A/25/098899/MAJOR on Wigan Council’s planning portal.

The Bellway decision from the council follows the high-profile campaign from residents living by PLP’s Astley Park warehousing complex. Residents have said that the proximity to the industrial project, which was constructed on land reserved for warehousing since 2006, has made it difficult to sell their homes and impacted their mental health.

An audit into the decision to approve PLP’s project found that Wigan Council had followed national procedure when evaluating the application, although more should have been done by the developer in terms of pre-application engagement.