Hopwood Hall College, Rochdale Road, Middleton Data via plota.co.uk

NOT/2026/0749 - Prior approval -Installation or alteration etc of solar equipment on non-domestic premises Closed

Proposal

Prior approval for the installation of a roof-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) system consisting of 2263 x 540W PV modules Data via plota.co.uk

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View original council record ↗Last checked 29 Oct 2026, 01:31

Application progress

✓

Received

18 Aug 2026

Decision

Target date was 13 Oct 2026

Under consideration

No decision has been issued yet. Plota predicted a decision around 30 Oct 2026; it is now day 73.

Documents 13

Plans & drawings 11

Site constraints 6

Green belt: Merseyside and Greater Manchester

Inappropriate development needs very special circumstances.

Green belt policy allows a short list of exceptions, such as limited extensions and replacement buildings. Anything else needs very special circumstances that clearly outweigh the harm. Some green belt land can count as grey belt, where it does not strongly serve the green belt's purposes. The council decides this in its green belt assessment or on each application, so we do not mark it here.

Read the government guidance ↗

Agricultural land, grade 3a

Best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. Natural England's Provisional ALC map (1:250,000, 1970s) agrees.

Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.

Local nature reserve about 104 m away: Hopwood Woodlands

Work nearby can need a habitats assessment.

Harm to a protected site is only accepted where there is no alternative and an overriding public interest.

Habitat network: Network Enhancement Zone 2

Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.

Also on the record

Radon affected area, class 2; Coalfield, development low risk area.

Not affected

Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 6 October 2026. The pin for this application is the centre of its postcode rather than the building, so distances to nearby designations are measured from the postcode and can be out by the width of the postcode area. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Mining Remediation Authority, the British Geological Survey and UK Health Security Agency (radon, contains BGS materials © UKRI) and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

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