Colne councillor urges Pendle Council to use former mill sites for new housing

Waterside ward councillor Tony Greaves said the council should focus on brownfield sites for housing in the South Valley of Colne.

Coun. Greaves has now tabled a motion for the next meeting of Pendle Council on Tuesday March 26th.

His motion states that Pendle Council would not be able to meet its required housing targets for the borough or for Colne without using unacceptable amounts of greenfield land in unacceptable locations, unless it is able to use the large genuinely brownfield former mill sites in the South Valley for housing purposes.

Coun. Greaves said: "We all know that the Government is trying to force Pendle to build hundreds of new houses every year. We all know where they will go if we can’t find a way of putting some of them on the previously developed 'brownfield' sites – and the South Valley of Colne has the largest amount of such land in Pendle."

Coun. Greaves added that Colne councillors had asked for a report on the South Valley sites to go to Pendle’s Colne and District area committee. However, he said it seems to have been "dumped in the long grass."