Residents make point as councillors vote on mammoth 250-home development in Fylde village of Wesham
“Previous plans on this site were refused. So what is different now?”
Residents concerned about proposals for a huge development of up to 250 homes on a greenfield site near Wesham spoke out at a Fylde planning meeting.
Developers Taylor Wimpey are proposing to build the homes on land north of Weeton Road on the outskirts of the town.
The outline planning application for the houses and associated infrastructure went before councillors today.
In a session lasting almost three hours, committee members debated how the council’s current inability to deliver a five year supply of housing was set against a number of concerns about the application.
Under current planning rules, an application aimed at satisfying housing requirements like this enjoys “tilted balance” in its favour unless any “substantial” harm it may bring is found to outweigh the benefits.
Concerns raised include the already existing levels of congestion and high traffic volume on Weeton Road, permanent loss of land used for both arable and livestock farming and the fact that much of the greenfield site is not designated for housing.
The planning officer’s report had recommended councillors to agree that “authority be delegated to the Service Director for Planning and Building Control to grant planning permission, subject to various stipulations and also planning conditions”.
But after hearing both from residents who opposed it and from planning case officer Matthew Taylor who is recommending approval, councillors voted almost unanimously to defer a decision to allow more information to be provided from various parties.
What they said
Parish Cllr Richard Nulty, chairman of Greenhalgh with Thistleton Parish Council, slammed “pipedream” proposals for the developer to reduce the extra volume of traffic, caused by the new homes, by providing season rail tickets for a year to 25 of the people living in the first 50 houses to be built.
He said this would have no impact on the extra levels of traffic caused by 250 new homes, and said those who accepted the tickets would still need to drive to Kirkham railway station to catch the train. Additionally, there were insufficient parking spaces at the station.
He added: “The congestion on Weeton Road dominates our lives, the network is already over-loaded.”
Cllr Lyn Nulty, of Medlar with Wesham Town Council, said: “This application is even bigger than the plans to build on the same site back in 2018, which were refused. Nothing has changed, so why should this scheme be approved this time?”
Case officer Mr Taylor said: “A key thing that is different this time that back in 2018 we were able to deliver a five year supply of housing. That isn’t the case now.”
He said an alternative agreement to the train tickets offer was financial support to bolster local bus provision, which would again encourage people not to always use their cars.
If approved, stipulations include a Section 106 agreement that the developers make contributions to local health care, bus provision and agreement that 30 per cent of the houses are affordable.
Cllr Kelly Farrington said he was concerned that the impact of match day crowds coming to and from AFC Fylde’s Mill farm stadium had not been taken into consideration, in terms of how this could affectively block a vital access to the new estate in the event of an emergency needing firefighters or an ambulance to attend.
He said a comprehensive traffic assessment was needed from both Lancashire County Council’s highways department and National Highways.
It was agreed to defer the decision pending further information from highways and also in regard to parking issues at Kirkham Train Station.