#City & Town Planning
Target:
West Lancashire Borough Council
Region:
United Kingdom
Website:
www.fullstopltd.co.uk

West Lancs Borough Council's Local Plan proposes to develop a 74 hectare site with houses and industrial units on Green Belt at Yew Tree Farm on Higgins Lane, joining Burscough village to the nearby industrial estate and merging it with the hamlet of New Lane. The site will initially have 1000 houses, developed in two phases, but could potentially deliver a further 2000 in the future.

In addition to the initial 1000 houses, a further 350 will be built around Burscough and 250 South of Burscough on Green Belt at Grove Farm, closing the gap between the village and the town of Ormskirk. There is also provision to build a further 60 houses on Green Belt off Red Cat Lane. All in addition to approved ongoing developments.

The developments avoids putting affordable housing where it is needed. The need for affordable housing is four times as great in Ormskirk and Aughton as it is in Burscough. Yet the plan proposes to build considerably more houses in Burscough than in Ormskirk.

Apart from all the valid reasons that locals have for objecting to these developments listed in the petition, looking at the evidence WLBC has produced the sites have not been identified by a fair process, the process is inconsistent in its methodology, ignores major constraints, removes more suitable sites without evidence and prioritises Green Belt over Brown Field sites.

We the undersigned, petition West Lancashire Borough Council to reject plans for the proposed development of Yew Tree Farm and Red Cat Lane as identified within the Local Plan.

We believe the process WLBC have used to identify parcels of land within the Borough has not been fair and equitable, and request that a review of this process takes place. We are concerned that decisions made by the Council will have a number of detrimental effects on the village;

i) Permanent loss of high quality agricultural land affecting local employment and sustainability;

ii) Loss of Green Belt land, when brownfield sites within the Borough have not been fully explored and utilised;

iii) Loss of safety buffer between residential and industrial areas creating a health risk to residents;

iv) Increased strain on the already inadequate waste water pipework and drains infrastructure;

v) Increased risk to the village from surface water flooding through loss of permeable land to development;

vi) Overcapacity of secondary school places resulting in unnecessary travel to schools throughout the Borough;

vii) Increased demand on local health and dental services;

viii) Increased generation of traffic on A59 and feeding roads without appropriate plans for alleviation in place;

ix) Damage to the environment and health of residents through pollution due to increased traffic and construction;

x) Loss of natural and supportive habitat for a number of protected species that benefit from the Green belt land

xi) Over development of the village as proposed plans are not appropriate to the scale of the existing settlement;

xii) Loss of rural identity for the village when local heritage should be preserved and enhanced.

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The Reject plans for the proposed housing and industrial developments in Burscough as identified within the Local Plan petition to West Lancashire Borough Council was written by Michelle Blair and is in the category City & Town Planning at GoPetition.