Traffic chaos fear as hundreds of new homes planned for Pendle village

A new planning application submitted recently by Denbighshire based Castle Green Homes to build 257 houses in open countryside above Barrowford has angered residents and is already being met with robust local resistance.

This blow has been delivered after Barrowford residents had already been subjected to a long and bitter battle to prevent 500 houses being built at Trough Laithe to the west side of Barrowford, which was lost in 2019 and for which development has now already commenced.

A newly formed Facebook group, ‘Keep Pasture Lane Green’, which was a direct result of the planning application being submitted has gained almost 200 followers in less than a week.

Similarly, a petition of the same name set up by the group on change.org has attracted 561 signatures. They are angry about yet more executive style housing being pushed onto the area.

The residents said they are also extremely worried about Pasture Lane being the only access road to the estate and fear traffic will be pushed through the more residential areas close by, ultimately filtering traffic onto Church Street, which is also a single track lane with parked cars on either side, endangering the safety of school children and pedestrians alike.

A spokesperson for the group Irene Sanderson said: “Residents fear this will inevitably endanger lives and will push the traffic through other already busy residential areas such as Appleby Drive, Church Street and Higher Causeway which themselves are not suitable either."

In conjunction with the loss of yet more open countryside, mature trees, long uninterrupted hedgerows and 27 acres of natural habitat, local residents fear this latest proposal to the North West of St Thomas’s School and Appleby Drive will, because of its location, bring traffic chaos to the village.

The village is still bracing itself for the effects of the Trough Laithe development and many residents feel it is unfair that Barrowford has received yet another planning application for a huge estate.

The application claims, that according to a traffic survey commissioned by the contractors, and carried out on two separate afternoons in February and November 2019, that the scheme would have minimal traffic impact. However, the residents feel this does not reflect the reality, as they deal with a huge traffic problem on a day to day basis.

Thomas Slater, local resident and member of the new group, said: “One only needs to drive down Gisburn Road A682 at peak times to get an understanding of why we are angry. We may have up to 500 extra commuters every morning and every evening, I can’t imagine how difficult that will make the roads of Barrowford."

One major worry is the junction off Pasture Lane with the A682, between the Grade II listed White Bear Inn and the Bankers Draft micro pub. This junction is already severely restricted, partly due to a new fence being erected around The White Bear’s beer garden, which was built to offer some protection to the pub’s customers from the very busy road below.

Further up the steep lane, there’s immediately a blind bend, with no pedestrian walkway, closely followed by double parked vehicles on either side, allowing single file traffic only and all of which adds to the unpredictable nature of the road.

Residents around Pasture Lane, Appleby Drive, Higher Causeway, Church Street and Nora Street will be hit hard by the extra traffic.

Members of the group are urging everyone affected by this planning application to comment before the deadline of January 10th 2022.

Email [email protected]

Write to Kathryn Hughes, Borough of Pendle Planning, Economic Development and Regulatory Services. Town Hall, Market St, Nelson BB9 7LG

On line www.pendle.gov.uk/planning quote ref 21/0949/FUL