Persimmon Homes submits details for ‘breached’ footpath at Birch Hill Gardens

Persimmon Homes have submitted details for the proposed path and cycleway that will run alongside Laura's house in place of this grass

A planning application for a footpath at Birch Hill Gardens has been lodged by Persimmon Homes after concerns of ‘breached planning conditions’.

In October, resident Laura Coe expressed concern that Persimmon Homes 'breached' planning conditions as work to complete a footpath and cycleway at next to her home started five years after planning was originally granted.

• https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/113213/laura-coe-concerned-with-planning-breach-by-persimmon-homes

The original 'reserved matters' application was submitted on 23 August 2012 noting there should be a ‘strict timescale’ for completion of the path next to Laura’s property: however, Laura has been living at her home on Oakley Way since June 2014, one of the plots earmarked for occupation after the path was supposed to be constructed, and the final one to be completed.

Reserved matters are those aspects of a proposed development which an applicant can choose not to submit details of with an outline planning application, such as access to the site for vehicles, cycles and pedestrians, appearance and scale of buildings, landscaping and layout.

Under section 92 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, applications for approval of reserved matters must be made within a specified time-limit, normally three years from the date outline planning permission was granted. Outline planning permission was granted in 2010.

The latest application, submitted on 1 November 2017, contains details to comply with condition four of planning permission, originally granted by the Council on 22 November 2012: “Before the access link to the Council-owned area of public recreational open space to the east of the site is provided, as required by Condition 3 of this approval, notwithstanding the details shown on the approved plans, a detailed scheme for surface treatment and other associated hard and soft landscaping works to provide a link between the carriageway and the boundary wall, shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the local planning authority.

“The duly agreed scheme of works shall be completed within three months of the occupation of any of the dwellings on plots 301-308 and 352 and shall be retained thereafter.

“Reason: In order to ensure that this access link is provided in a suitable form and within a suitable timescale, in accordance with policies A/3 - New development - access for pedestrians and disabled people, A/4 - New development - access for cyclists, RE/5 - Access to the countryside, RE/6 - Recreational rights of way and BE/2 - Design criteria for new development, of the Council's Unitary Development Plan and because inadequate details of this feature were included as part of the application.”

A reserved matters application for the development was first submitted in August 2011, with details of associated garages, driveways and other external works – excluding the cycleway – in 2015.

The decision notice issued by the council in June 2015 for determination on approval of details by a condition read: “The submitted scheme is unacceptable and this condition is not discharged. Notwithstanding this, the condition is inextricably linked to condition three of planning permission reference 12/55895/REM. The proposed scheme does not show the siting of the opening in the wall that is required by condition three to provide the link to the public open space and does not include measures to regulate its use for pedestrians and cyclists only. The landscaping of this area is also unclear.”

The aforementioned condition three referred to the timescale for implementing the pedestrian access: ‘The proposed pedestrian access link from the site to reach the Council-owned public open space to the east of the site, (next to plot 353), shall be provided and made available for public use before any of the dwellings on plots 301 - 308 or 353 are first occupied.

'The details of the new opening, including its width and the treatment of the brick boundary wall at that point, together with appropriate measures to regulate its use for pedestrians and cyclists only, shall first be submitted and approved in writing by the local planning authority before those works are undertaken and shall be retained thereafter.'

Comments, including objections, can be made at:

• http://publicaccess.rochdale.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=OYP1ZLNB00500