MP backs fight to stop Sabden new homes

The MP is backing villagers who are campaigning to stop the latest planning application for 17 more houses and bungalows on a green field site.

This application, coming on top of the large development at Cobden Mill, which still has a lot of unsold homes, the large estate planned for Victoria Mill on Watt Street, and the Black Hill View and Stubbins Lane developments which are both underway, was the final straw for residents who launched a “We Love Sabden - No More Development” campaign.

There is a poster and Facebook campaign and villagers have bombarded Ribble Valley Council with objections to the application, by D. and P. Developments, which will be considered by planning councillors next month.

The company is run by Sabden man Damian Fielding and Paul Ingham and is due to go before the planning and development committee on Thursday, September 12th.

The MP has written to the council supporting villagers, the borough councillor Richard Newmark and Sabden Parish Council which has objected in the strongest possible terms asking them to turn down the application,

In a letter to the borough council the MP says: “There are serious questions being raised over access, highway safety, drainage, environment, light pollution, infrastructure, employment, the greenfield site and cumulative effect of recent applications.

“In particular I do feel that Sabden has more than taken its fair share of development in recent years. I am concerned that areas such as Sabden will be unrecognisable within a short period of time if development on this scale is allowed to continue unchecked.”

He adds that the parish council’s objections are fair and well made. “I strongly believe that the opinions of local communities should be given large weight when deciding planning applications and I wholeheartedly back the residents of Sabden in this case.

“I would hope that the department will give the local community the courtesy of taking their objections seriously and register my own objection to this application at the same time.”