Plans for a new housing development in Mossley have been knocked back again after a councillor complained it would cause ‘traffic havoc’.
Proposals to build houses and apartments on a plot of land on Stamford Road had previously been rejected over concerns about its design and highways safety implications, a decision that was upheld at appeal.
The new application lodged by Mr D Wilcox to Tameside council was to build nine houses on the site, three of which would have three bedrooms and six two-beds. They would have been two storeys high and staggered over three blocks, aside for one detached home.
There had been 30 objections from members of the public raising concerns about the impact on traffic and the number of houses being proposed. Mossley ward councillors Stephen Homer and Tafheen Sharif had also objected, as did Mossley Town Council.
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Tameside planning officers had said the site was a ‘sustainable’ location for housing, but recommended the application be refused over the scale and design of the development.
Chair of planning, Melanie Hale, said it would result in a ‘cluttered appearance’. But she added: “Quite a lot of these developments generate quite strong feelings in relation to highways.”
Coun Stephen Homer spoke against the application, raising concerns that there were no highways issues as a result of the development on Stamford Road, especially during the construction phase, being highlighted as a reason for refusal.
“Anything that causes issues on that road leads to traffic backing up pretty much to the junction pub on Mossley Road, it’ll be backing up down into bottom Mossley, it’ll be backing up to Greenfield,” he said.
“Anything that interferes with that junction has major, major impact on the town. It always does. There are no other routes between top and bottom Mossley that you can use in both directions. We don’t understand why highways hasn’t got an issue with that.
“It would cause immeasurable damage and havoc. It’s not an idyllic lane. It would be complete madness to develop this piece of land.”
He added: “If you live in Mossley this is a major inconvenience, this is a major problem at that junction. It often comes to a standstill.”
Paul Judge, the agent on behalf of the applicant, told the panel the planning history of the site showed it was suitable for housing.
“It’s in a town centre location, there is a shortfall of housing generally in the country and in the borough, and therefore it’s a suitable site to be developed,” he said.
“There have already been four schemes submitted for consideration by the council. We reduced the number of houses on the site, we’ve reduced the heigh of the buildings. There’s a construction management plan that’s been submitted and accepted by the highways authority.
“All in all we think we have provided the best solution developing the site to provide houses that fall within the national planning guidelines in terms of floor areas and we’ve addressed the previous issues to do with the height of the buildings.”
But panel member Coun Doreen Dickinson said: “I have to agree with Councillor Homer, it [the traffic] is dreadful.
“You can’t work on a premise that if it does cause problems we can get enforcement because as we know we don’t have a very strong enforcement team and you would need to be there all the time. I think we’re just setting ourselves up for a disaster.”
Councillors voted unanimously to refuse the application.
