150 join march in protest at Wigan donkey fields development plans

The land, known as The Bell, where Latham House Farm stands between junction 26 of the M6 and Spring Road, at Kitt Green, has been named in the draft Local Plan for Wigan as an area for potential “high-quality” employment development.

Farming couple Jimmy and Gillian Morris, whose family has tended the land for more than 100 years and have Blackpool and St Anne’s donkeys wintering there, have no intention of budging.

And they were joined by scores of other banner-waving residents who marched around the streets of Kitt Green and Orrell before attending a Pemberton Masonic Hall public meeting.

Mrs Morris said: “This is the fourth time they have tried to change the plans so the fields here can be developed. We’ve seen them off before and we will see them off again.

"Given the turn-out for our walk, it’s clear the public are really behind us this time.

"If the Local Plan gets approved all the green space you can see in the area would disappear for a road coming down from the M6/M58 junction and Amazon sheds. It would completely change the landscape for the worse and create horrendous new congestion problems for Spring Road involving lots of HGVs.

"At the meeting one of the planners said they didn’t know why people were bothered about these plans for privately owned land. But it is beautiful and it is well used by walkers using the public footpath which takes a huge corner off when heading up to Orrell.”

Mrs Morris said she was concerned that the term “grey belt” was now creeping into documents concerning the site, arguing that the definition of “grey belt” is land that has been previously been developed, yet hers and other adjoining land never had been.

She said she had also been told that developers had started buying up homes in the area as if in preparation for any future developments.

The consultation runs until June 24 after which views expressed over various contended sites around the borough will be considered before a new version of the plan is published

The council has pledged to take a “brown belt first” approach but makes no promises about encroaching on greener areas.