Wigan pit tragedy victims to be remembered at new housing estate

The street names on the Tulach site in Pemberton all have links to the industrial past of where it now sits – this includes using the names of those that died in colliery explosions back in 1830 and 1877.

Developers say the land brought with it a key piece of infrastructure needed for Wigan while regenerating the previously “derelict” site off Smithy Brook Road.

Northstone, the developer, part of Peel L&P is contributing more than £4m towards the M58 link road which is being implemented to relieve traffic in this part of the borough.

According to Wigan Council’s housing strategy there is a continuing shortfall in affordable homes in the borough, which is why sites like this maintaining affordable homes is vital.

Northstone reduced the number of affordable homes on this site from 25 per cent (minimum requirement unless site becomes financially unviable as a result) down to 13 – the reason given was the cost of building the section of M58 link road.

Jonathan England, Development Director at Peel L&P, said: “The principal planning benefit that this site brought was that it was able to bring forward a section of the M58 link from Smithy Brook to the Billinge Road junction – which is seen as a key gap in the link road for Wigan.

“Access for this site was already pretty good as it is right beside Pemberton Railway Station.

“In truth it [the link road] is more of a gain for Wigan than it was for us from a selling point. The key for this was that it would bring key infrastructure and new homes.

“This was something Wigan Council were keen to be delivered as the site remained undeveloped for a good 10 years since the opencast colliery was remediated.

"Northstone has in mind that everything we do should be more sustainable and more thoughtful in our design and more flexible and more adaptable to make better places for people to live.”

The homes are being fitted up “ahead of projected building regulations for 2025” in order to keep up to date with the demand for more efficient homes and be prepared for future changes such as electric cars.

Energy-saving features to help residents were a key aspect that helped this development get approved at Wigan Council Planning Committee back in 2020.

Transport networks in Wigan have been brought into question by local MPs and councillors, with claims that better infrastructure is needed before more homes are built like this.

Mr England believes that these developments will help push forward infrastructure improvement in the region as a result of financial contributions from the companies building them.

“Naturally, and this applies to a lot of North Manchester towns, the heritage of them is that they’re former industrial towns,” he said.

“The only way you can pick sites and make them viable is to deliver key parts of infrastructure that are potentially missing, with Mosley Common being a prime example of that.”