Application to redevelop the Crimble Restaurant site into luxury homes approved despite fire safety concerns

The transformation of a former restaurant into a six-home development that fire engines would ‘struggle to get to’ has been approved at a planning committee meeting at Number One Riverside on 20 October.

Rochdale Council’s planning committee believed changing the use of the historic Crimble Hall building was acceptable despite councillors’ concerns regarding green belt encroachment and the fact it does not meet fire service requirements.

The scheme for Crimble Hall includes demolishing ‘much of the existing building’ – although not the original structure or features.

It would also see five (revised from seven in the original application) new ‘executive homes’ built at the three-acre site between Rochdale and Heywood.

The additional dwellings, designed to be larger, higher-value family homes would be accessed by Crimble Lane, which Councillor Peter Malcolm, who was formerly in the fire service, was not convinced would fit a fire engine comfortably.

 

 

This was a concern for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service as well who recommended a sprinkler system to allow longer response times – this was not made mandatory by the planning team despite the applicant saying they would oblige.

“I do not think a fire engine would get up there,” Councillor Malcolm said.

Planning officers stated that it was not a problem when the restaurant was active, which is why they have not taken forward GMFRS’ recommendation. They deemed a restaurant to be more of a fire risk than six homes.
 

Read more: Planning application submitted to convert Crimble Hall into five-bedroom house and build seven new houses on the surrounding landPublished: 22 March 2021

The layout of the site means the development would go into green belt land, which raised the eyebrows of councillors Stephen Anstee, Peter Winkler and Billy Sheerin. They all said this application ‘does not meet the special circumstances’ to build on green belt.

Officers hit back at this by stating that the redistribution of the land meant there would actually be more green space after the development was complete. Jennifer Heywood, representing the neighbouring Crimble Hall Farm, addressed the committee to raise her objections.

“I have responded in writing to this but I have received no response,” she said. “Access is the main issue for me.

“We have three generations of farmers who have lived there and there is a private, unadopted road and we don’t want to get in disputes with people going down there. I also want you to consider the legacy left in this area once they have taken their money and left.

“We don’t want that lane to become a rat run.”

She accepted that Crimble Hall needed to be brought back into use, but didn’t want the farm to suffer from people encroaching on their land and blocking up the lanes – to the detriment of their livestock.

A condition in the approval, which was passed by a tight margin, was included to provide Jennifer and her family with a copy of the decision stating their rights if people decided to create access to their fields. 

Dom Murphy, who represented the applicant at the committee meeting, assured councillors that all the pre-20th century elements of the Hall would remain intact – only the elevations added by the restaurant would be axed. He hoped that this plan would bring back a historic building into the community.

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter