SEVEN year planning spat rumbles on as neighbours fear road ‘nightmare’

A housing development in Oldham that has faced seven years of planning struggles is locked in a stalemate between neighbours and the council over ‘nightmare roads’.

The 23 new homes on land off Haven Lane, Moorside are almost completed – but won’t be occupied until the planning spat is resolved. 

Planning permission requires the developer, Cube Homes, to develop a traffic calming scheme to deal with the ‘dangerous roads’ nearby before they are allowed to rent or sell the houses. 

Now the developer has asked to have the conditions removed entirely or else amended.

An application submitted to the council on Friday, August 23 seeks a ‘total removal of the condition’ or the conditions to be changed so that the measures must be completed ‘within 12 months of the final occupation of the approved dwellings’ instead of before it. 

Cube’s consultant Alisa Goudie argued the current conditions are’stymieing the ability of Cube to occupy the properties and thus realise profit from the development’.

She also suggested that this was stopping the company from ‘reinvesting in social value initiatives and affordable housing’. 

The application comes just a month after a previous application by Cube to amend the traffic calming measures and building condition was thrown out.

At the time, local residents had opposed an updated traffic calming scheme put forward by the developer and the Highways Department. 

Neighbours called the plans a ‘kick in the teeth’ after they had been significantly changed from initial plans submitted in 2018, which were found to be ‘unfeasible’.

They feared the new plans would cause major parking issues because of widened pavements, speed bump placements and a raised junction area. 

The ‘danger’ of the road layout comes from a ‘blind spot’ at the entrance to the housing development, according to Trevor Cash, the Chairman of the Moorside East Residents Association.

He and his wife Wendy directly neighbour the development and argued that the traffic calming measures were necessary.

But Wendy said: “It needs to work for everyone.”

Councillors voted against the amendment, with ward councillor Josh Charters saying numerous residents had raised concerns with him and felt like the plans had ‘come out of nowhere’.

He said: “People are sick of having things done to them without them having any say”.

The rejection has added a further delay to the planning process for the homes, which have undergone a total of seven years of applications, appeals and condition amendments.

The new amendments are due to be decided by November 21.

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