Plans for a new estate of 112 homes have been delayed as the developer was offering no contribution to community services and infrastructure or building any affordable homes. Morris Homes North Ltd hope to build the homes on land north of 659 Radcliffe Road in the Darcy Lever area of Bolton.
A meeting of Bolton’s planning committee heard the site is currently used for the most part for caravan storage with a house for the business owners and associated outbuildings. The green field part of the site is used for grazing horses.
Eight of homes planned would be on land designated as green belt and therefore subject to increased protection. A footpath at the site would also need to be diverted if the plans were approved. Objections to the plans were received by the council from 16 nearby addresses.
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The committee heard that a viability study by Morris Homes said they could not give any section 106 contributions or build any affordable housing at the site. Coun Nick Peel said the lack of those contributions ‘makes you conclude that the planning system in this country is broken’.
He added: “It’s becoming increasingly depressing to see viability reports that show that developers are coming forward with housing schemes in an uncertain market where profitability is so low that they cannot give any section 106 or any affordable housing contribution.
“I would argue very strongly that at the heart of the so called housing shortfall in Bolton is the lack of affordable housing. I’m deeply unhappy about a large number of houses being built and nothing coming back.”
Section 106 agreements with developers are used to support the provision of services and infrastructure, such as highways, recreational facilities, education, health and affordable housing. The meeting heard that the development was close to a former railway route which could be used as part of a future extension of the Metrolink tram system from Bury to Bolton.
Planning officers said that the width of the former railway cutting would not be affected by the development but councillors agreed that they needed to hear from Transport for Greater Manchester on this aspect. Speaking for the proposal, John Coxon, from Morris Homes, said: “Most of this site is brownfield land.
“We do accept that members will be disappointed at the absence of affordable housing however it is necessary to exclude affordable housing to make this brownfield site viable. “This has been accepted by the council’s advisors.”
The committee voted unanimously to defer a decision on the plans until a future date.
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