Objections to plans to build house fifteen times larger than the average UK house on Green Belt land

Plans submitted house fifteen times larger than the average UK house

Local objectors are concerned that Rochdale Borough Council Planning Officers are supporting an application for a stand-alone new-build home on a Green Belt site on the border of Bamford and Norden. The plans submitted show that it will be 15 times larger than the average UK house.

The applicant’s architect describes it as ‘a 21st century replacement for the Old Bamford Hall’ even though it will not stand within the original gardens, but in open farmland.

Bamford Old Hall was demolished in 1951 when two smaller halls, Bamford Hall and Bamford Old Hall, were built within the beautiful pleasure grounds and kitchen gardens.

The Planning Officer, in his report, accepts that ‘the proposed dwelling represents inappropriate development in the Green Belt’ but says that ‘benefits to non-designated heritage assets’ are ‘very special circumstances’ to depart from national policy.

Objectors say the heritage assets all relate to the serving elements of the hall such as an ice house, a pond and stables and 'to build a hall in the middle of these assets would destroy the history of the farmland and the stories of the people who lived there'.

The application describes an interesting historical background of The Bamford Estate. The original hall, dating back to the 13th century, was demolished and re-built in the 19th century by the Fenton family, who were local mill owners and bankers. Following the failure of the Fenton’s bank in 1878, the whole of the Bamford Hall Estate was auctioned in a liquidation sale.

The hall was bought by the co-owner of Massey’s brewery in Burnley, and subsequently had various owners until World War II when it became a military convalescent home.

After the war, the hall was unoccupied and finally demolished in the 1950s when two replacement halls were built from the stone of the old hall within its curtilage.

Until 1975 the field was farmland belonging to Butterworth Fold Farm, which had served the original Bamford Hall estate. In the 1970s the farmer sold the field and woods to the then owner of Bamford Old Hall.

The present Bamford Old Hall (which has some original 19th century features from the original hall) was recently sold separately from the field and woods.

The proposal is to build a 1,200 square metre house on what was the estate farmland. It will be a 'contemporary design and crescent shaped, built of brick with copper cladding and a glass frontage'.

Anne Shorrock, a member of the Bamford Greenbelt Action Group, states: "This is clearly insensitive and detrimental to the local characteristics and landscape which is open, undeveloped, rural land protected by the Green Belt.

"The new building will occupy the space between a pond and servants’ cottages which date back to the original hall and clashes with these historic buildings."

Objectors include Bamford Green Belt Action Group, The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Birtle Trust, Norden Area Forum and several individuals with a long association with the land, and other local people who are interested in preserving this 'very special Green Belt area'. They argue that the rare and very high test of 'very special circumstances’ required to make an exception to Government policy on Green Belt protection has not been met.

Anne Shorrock explained: "The non-designated heritage assets are a pond (on site), an ice house (off site), and some woodland (off site). It was stated at the Rochdale Township Planning Sub-Committee on 8 December that the ice house is to be listed in any event and therefore would be protected with or without the planning permission. The woodland is natural and already designated as an area of ecological and geological importance so is protected and has survived the last few hundred years without a house on the farmland.

"The pond is part of an agricultural land drainage system, which has functioned adequately to date with no record of any maintenance. So it is difficult to understand why the Planning Officers consider building such a large house on the Green Belt can be justified."  

Mrs Shorrock’s opinion is, regardless of what the Planning Officers say, that the application is a threat to the whole of this Green Belt area and should be refused.

Townscape Heritage Consultants, on behalf of the objectors, have reported that 'the proposed development would completely change the character of the site from open farmland to developed residential, and will therefore destroy the history of the farmland which once supported the Bamford Hall Estate’.

If you care would like to register your objections, visit the Council’s Planning website. The application number is 15/01001/FUL, or email development.management@rochdale.gov.uk 

The committee meeting for a final decision is 12 January 2016.