Massive plan for 16,500 homes and a new ‘Wigan-Bolton Growth Corridor’ agreed

Wigan Council gave the thumbs-up to Greater Manchester’s final Places for Everyone (PfE) draft at a meeting on Wednesday (February 28).

PfE sets out strategic employment, residential and transport infrastructure targets across nine of the city region’s boroughs from 2022 to 2039.

Councils have until March 21 to adopt the plan as the strategy to inform their local plans which have a major bearing on planning decisions.​

As well as earmarking sites for a total of 16,527 new homes in Wigan it also sets out an approach to boosting economic competitiveness in the northern districts of Greater Manchester, including focusing on town centres, brownfield land regeneration and strategic improvements to transport connectivity.

A key part of this is the Wigan-Bolton Growth Corridor as a “regionally significant area of economic and residential development.”

This includes the potential finally to complete the link road between Junction 25 of the M6 and Junction 5 of the M61 at Westhoughton, with congestion between Wigan and Bolton seen as one of the major obstacles to growth in the north of Greater Manchester. Rail and bus links will also be improved.

However, the plan’s adoption means development sites at Junction 25 of the M6 (employment), on land north of Mosley Common (housing) and land west of Gibfield in Atherton (housing and employment) are removed from the Green Belt.

A report by director of place Aiden Thatcher pointed out that a large proportion of the allocation at the M6 junction had already been given planning permission, and likewise Mosley Common where 1,100 homes are planned, subject to a referral of the PfE plan to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities Michael Gove.

“The overall impact of these changes is that 55.7 per cent of the borough will remain within the Green Belt – a minimal reduction from the existing 56.6 per cent,” Mr Thatcher’s report said.

The plan also allocates land at Pocket Nook in Lowton for 500 homes and nearly half a million square feet of employment floor space, but this is not within the Green Belt.

Proposing acceptance of the plan, Wigan’s portfolio leader for planning, environmental services and transport Coun Paul Prescott said: “The PfE plan has been 10 years in the making. The Government has threatened to take over planning authorities which don’t have a plan.

“It is significant because it provides certainty to people who want to invest in the borough.”

He pointed out that only 0.9 per cent of Green Belt land would lost as a result of acceptance of the plan.

But Independent Network councillor James Watson cast doubt as to whether the motorway link road would materialise.

“This wishy-washy policy will have a detrimental impact on the borough,” he said. “We do not want a concrete jungle taking the place of our green space. This will create more congestion on our roads.”

But Labour council leader David Molyneux responded: “What we are trying to do is protect what we want to deliver. This is about housing across the board. People need a [full] range of housing.

At the conclusion of the debate, the council approved acceptance of the plan.