Controversial Briercliffe housing development gets the go ahead

The application was passed at yesterday evening's Development Control meeting, seven months after an initial application for the site on greenfield land north of Higher Saxifield Street and Standen Hall Drive was refused on traffic grounds.

Developers Countryside Homes Northwest resubmitted their application dropping the number of proposed houses from 130 to 117 to "appease the council’s and residents’ concerns" saying the reduction in numbers would "result in a lower traffic generation with a lesser impact on local transport infrastructure".

Aggrieved nearby homeowners have continually argued the area is already on the verge of becoming overpopulated and to build further homes would only increase the strain on surrounding infrastructure.

The council's planning committee rejected the initial application after hearing evidence from an independent highways expert, appointed by the residents to challenge Lancashire County Council's highways assumptions.

Brierclffie ward councillor Maggie Lishman said she had hoped the committee would see sense again.

"The residents are not going to be happy about this . A lot of them had sent in pictures of the flooding they have suffered recently. They are really worried about the impact this is going to have.

"These are not small houses, these are four to five bedroom houses; most likely each with two to three cars. The area is not going to be able to handle that amount of traffic. Anybody who lives up here knows that.

"The Red Lees Road [in Cliviger] application that was recently approved, that estate will decant onto a main road. This decants onto an estate. One of the main things that residents had been asking for was another point of access. That has been completely ignored. The residents had crowdfunded for an independent highways expert whose evidence led to the first application being refused. I would argue that nothing has really changed with this application. And so for this to be dismissed, so flippantly, is not good.

"At a time of climate emergency, when we are asking people to use more public transport; to build an estate with poor bus connections and no schools within walking distance, is just madness."