Plan for 37 homes on Wigan borough farmland rejected

Affordable housing developers wanted to build the properties at Old Shams Farm on Shakerley Lane.

Torus 62 and MCI Development Ltd have been informed that outline permission – meaning the principle of a housing scheme on the land – has been refused.

The decision has been published on Wigan council’s planning portal.

It says that the proposed access to the development uses a long, poorly maintained unadoped road which is narrow and with limited footway provision, street lighting and poor visibility over a railway bridge.

“The proposals will result in an increase in road users along an unadopted road, and significant conflict between pedestrian, cyclists and vehicle traffic,” it says.

“They would not provide safe access for all users.”

An officers’ report says that there were about 210 representations received objecting to the proposals, as well as from Mosley Common councillors Jamie Hodgkinson, Jess Eastoe and Joanne Marshall.

They feared the loss of Green Belt land, impact on local services like schools and medical centres, the impack on wildlife and increased traffic congestion as well as the risk to pedestrians on Shakerley Lane.

The loss of stabling facilities for horses, the potential impact of coal mining legacy, and claims that the houses were “not affordable” were also cited.