Plans for housing development on former Akzo Nobel site approved

The former Akzo Nobel site in Littleborough

Councillors sitting on the Pennines Township Planning Sub-Committee have approved plans for a housing development on the former Akzo Nobel site.

Despite objections from local residents and Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk, the plans were approved with five councillors voting for the plans and one councillor, John Hartley voting against the plans.

The plans put to the council are for 174 residential homes.

At the meeting, on Wednesday (14 January), a number of local residents turned out to show voice objections to the plans. Local resident Barry Cropper represented those objecting and offered further evidence to councillors against the development. However, despite coming prepared, Mr Cropper was unable to present documents to Councillors and described the meeting as “ludicrous”.

He said: “I have to thank you for giving me extra time to speak on this matter but to get through all of the points in ten minutes is absolutely impossible. We haven’t even addressed a number of issues that many people want to talk about including traffic, strain on local services, wildlife and school places.”

Speaking on behalf of the land owners, Mike Hopkins asked councillors to approve the recommendation presented to them and said: “Since 2012 when the application was presented to the council and the decision was deferred, the council and the applicant have worked to ensure that the issues raised have been addressed.”

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk recently contacted Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to intervene in a row over the plans to develop on the site.

It is now understood that a holding direction could be issued from the National Planning Casework Unit, which could mean that Mr Pickles could still intervene with the plan and overturn the decision.