Group keeps fighting £100m regeneration

CHRISTINA GATER, Chair of Foxdenton and District Protection Group overlooking the land earmarked for development.

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THE FOXDENTON Protection Group will continue to fight against the controversial £100million Broadway Green regeneration scheme, which is set to begin as early as May.

Traffic congestion, air pollution, a lack of consultation and questions over funding are major concerns for the group who responded to a previous article by the Chronicle outlining the progression of the development.

They also feel that there are other neighbouring sites in the area that would be better used for the site and question whether the projections of increased employment opportunities in the area are accurate.

The scheme is set to provide 700,000 square ft of employment space within a premium business park alongside up to 500 new homes, placed between the M60 and M62, and will bring 2,000 new jobs and an estimated £5.4m annual boost to the local retail economy from resident spending. Infrastructure work, which will include a new link road connecting Broadway and Foxdenton Lane, is set to start in May.

However, the Foxdenton Protection Group, questioned the employment estimates as they say the figures from a August 2011 planning inspectorate suggested 4,000 jobs which declined to 1,500 in February 2014's planning officer's report to the planning committee before rising to the most recent figure. They said during the course of the plans the shift has gone from being an employment site to a residential site.

Traffic was a major concern as the estimates more than 1,000 vehicles would be using Broadway, which they say already suffers from congestion and as a result there would be more air pollution in the area as well as an increased risk to pedestrians.

Furthermore, they raised concerns about where the funding for the link road is coming from and feel Oldham Council hides behind a line of 'commercial sensitivity' and said that communication with representatives of the developers at Chadderton Together Meetings - designed to address the public's questions on the development - have yielded few results to address their queries.

Christina Gater, Chair of Foxdenton Protection Group, said: "Where is the money coming from for the link road? Who is the council borrowing off? They are revamping the figures, there is no consistency, why should we believe that without any facts? We just get told that we can't get them because it is 'commercially sensitive'. The traffic at the junction on to Broadway is congested, there are supposed to be traffic calming and mitigation measures put in before work starts as part of the planning approval but there have been none yet. There would be so many side effects from the extra pollution caused by more vehicles."

They said: "There are other sites nearby that would be better suited for this sort of development."

They also raised concerns about the impact of the development on Grade 2 listed buildings, namely Foxdenton Hall, and said the site for the linear park is situated on a well known flooding plain.