85 new homes at Land off Blackburn Road, Oswaldtwistle

The site and surroundings

The 3.17-hectare site lies north of Blackburn Road beside fields, urban fringe land, a bus company, a cricket club and the canal.

“The application site does not have a continuous, clearly defined boundary along its northern and eastern edges where it forms part of a wider network of fields that falls towards the Leeds and Liverpool Canal around 75m northeast. It is bordered by other urban fringe land and Springfield Garage to the south with the latter occupied by Moving PEOPLE bus company. It is bounded to the west by Church and Oswaldtwistle Cricket Club with trees between.”

Officer report

What officers recommended

Officers recommended approval because the location was suitable, the tilted balance applied and the benefits outweighed the identified harm.

“After further consideration, officers have accepted that the new area of Green Belt in this location is not justified. The Inspector concurs. It is now proposed that the urban boundary be redrawn to follow the line of the existing Green Belt. As such, most of the application site would be within the new urban boundary, which appears to include all the proposed dwellings.”

“While harm to the Green Belt would still be a matter of substantial weight, the harm and other harm resulting from the proposal, would be clearly outweighed by the benefits of the proposal such that very special circumstances would exist. As such, any deemed harm to the Green Belt would not provide a strong reason for refusal. The effect on open space 3.1. The application site is not designated as open space by the existing adopted development plan.”

Officer report

Objections received

Objections concerned development in principle, traffic and parking, infrastructure, flooding, biodiversity, residential amenity, open space and pollution.

“The historic character of West End should be preserved. • Highway safety, access and transport: o Significant concerns about highway safety and traffic impacts, including: ▪ Increased traffic on Blackburn Road, which is already unsafe. ▪ Existing accident history on Blackburn Road and around the proposed access. ▪ Blackburn Road is already congested and too narrow. ▪ Risk to pedestrians. ▪ Conflict between future residents and bus operations.”

“Overlooking and loss of privacy. ▪ Loss of open views. ▪ Impact on extended rear gardens. ▪ Loss of light and overshadowing. ▪ Visual intrusion and harm to visual amenity. ▪ General reduction in overall amenity. ▪ Construction impacts such as noise, dust and disruption. • Open space and recreation: o Loss of green space. o Harm to the canal as a quiet, tranquil recreational route used by walkers and cyclists. o Impact on nearby allotments.”

Officer report

Who spoke

A resident and a councillor spoke against the application, while the applicant’s representative spoke in support.

Members’ concerns

Members discussed the busy access road, the need for housing, wildlife, green space, accidents and speeding on Blackburn Road.

“Members discussed the complexity of the application in relation to the busy road which the application gains access from and the need for good quality housing. While members were generally in favour of more housing the location of the site brought forth concerns regarding the wildlife and the loss of greenspace.”

Minutes

The committee’s decision

Members voted against the officer recommendation and refused the application because the development would cause unacceptable harm to highway safety.

“Resolved – Members voted to go against the officer decision and refuse the application on the following grounds: • The proposed development would result in unacceptable harm to highway safety and would therefore conflict with Policy DM32 of the Hyndburn Development Management DPD and paragraph 116 of the NPPF.”

Minutes