Broad Lane homes proposal: Further protests from residents

About 20 Broad Lane residents attended last night’s Rochdale Township Committee in order to restate their concern at proposals to build 200 new homes in the area.

Organiser Tracy Wilson told Rochdale Online that the group remained hopeful of a favourable outcome and said the purpose of attending the meeting was to get more information and check on progress.

Ms Wilson pointed out that local residents are extremely angry about the situation and said that last month, 200 residents supported by their local councillors had attended a meeting at St Mary’s Church to raise awareness and concern about the proposals.

At the meeting, Ms Wilson, speaking on behalf of the group how many brown field sites there were in the township and their acreage. In reply, she was told that there were 40 sites within the ward covering an area of just under 14 hectares and that the borough as a whole had 88 such sites covering 78 hectares.

Turning to the number of available school places locally, Ms Wilson was told that there were 116 unfilled primary school places and over 200 secondary school places.

At the same meeting, discussion took place regarding proposals to set part of Denehurst Park aside for development as a cemetery. Although no decision was taken at the meeting, discussion took place regarding the setting up of a ‘Friends of Denehurst Park’ group in order to be able to attract funding, whether or not the cemetery proposals go ahead.

The council’s Legal Department is currently seeking advice regarding the covenant on the park and whether or not any ‘change of use’ would be permitted under this.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/70751/broad-lane-residents-say-no-to-new-housing-plans