Intro

We started as a small group of residents on the Facebook group Wigan Residents Advocating Sensible Housebuilding who were concerned about the amount of development work within the area of Leigh. As a group, we advocate for building within the means of the local infrastructure and on brown belt land which has left some areas looking derelict. Unfortunately for us our local council (Wigan Council) has had a rather large amount of plans submitted to them on Greenbelt Land and the consequence of this is that we are now starting to have issues like Noise, Traffic, and Air Pollution as well as previously beautiful tranquil areas being ripped apart.

At the end of 2019 a development came to the group's attention which through lots of discussions required looking into more. The reason is that land which has been used for 40+ years as a spot for fishing, walking, and to access the local Pennington Flash Nature Reserve and Park was to be ripped up and replaced with 470 new homes by Wigan Council, The Canal and River Trust and Taylor Wimpey.

As a local group, we decided to form an action group specifically to target this development as the plans as they stand will get rid of local wildlife as well as potentially affecting 100's of properties with flooding, pollution, and general loss of quality of life. as a group, we hope to affect the current plans to at least get them changed so that the issues we see are resolved.

The Applications Explained

Non-Material Change Amendment - A/20/89654/NMAS
This application was originally submitted in March 2020. However, due to errors were pulled in July 2020 and resubmitted. This means all objections to the original Non-Material Change Application were invalidated and the developer Taylor Wimpey ignored all issues and objections by resubmitting the plan with the only change being the error found in the original application.

This change was submitted as a Non-Material Change, however, the changes asked for a far larger than what a Non-Material Change Application is designed for. The density of housing has increased so that they can widen the roads and keep the same amount of houses. The road has massively changed from the original accepted plan so that it now borders the existing properties, this will increase the air and noise pollution for these properties.

We sought advice from Planning Aid UK on this, Every adviser for Planning Aid UK are a Chartered Planner and their interpretation on this was "an NMA (non-material amendment) can only be submitted where there is a very small change to an approved scheme, which would have no impact on anyone else. Given that the change to the internal road layout is not approved anyway and would clearly have an impact on surrounding residents, I am very surprised that the Council have allowed such a change to be dealt with as an NMA.” - Planning Aid England 12/5/2020

Reserved Matters Application - A/20/89543/RMMAJ

At the same time as the Non-Material Amendment being re-submitted in July 2020, Taylor Wimpey also submitted the Reserved Matters Application. This application has the final plans detailed but it relies on the Non-Material Change Amendment to be Approved.

Within this application, it shows issues that are far-reaching to the point where some residents will be impacted without knowing until its too late. some of the issues to note are Foundations - it's being built on coal slag, Pollutants - the ground survey has discovered multiple contaminations in the ground including asbestos fibers, Flooding - the entire area being built on are in Flood Zones 2 & 3. Once work commences the amount of flooding in the area will increase, Canal bank Failure - The canal bank has already got multiple places of failure on it. once building commences this will only get worse, Loss of flood defenses - there are over 1600 trees in the area. 80-90% of these will be removed. this also affects pollution levels and the list goes on. Please take your time to read the WWRAG Objection Letter HERE to see all the possible issues.

Also please take a look at the documents submitted on the proposed plans on the Wigan Council Portal as they show the traffic flow, building phases, and the full reports from multiple surveyors.

Our Objections

Higher Pollution
With the development of 470 homes on the field comes numerous issues with pollution. 470 homes will introduce an extra 900 vehicles on average to an area with already high levels of traffic. along with this, the development will also remove 80% - 90% of the trees from the land which massively helps with removing these pollutants. With the correct infrastructure, this can be managed but as the plans are there will be no traffic management and no extra roads out of town to help ease congestion. Due to the bad infrastructure, Wigan Council is already under ministerial direction to reduce air pollution as it has been breached multiple times over the last 3 Years. we are currently awaiting a Freedom of Information request to find out exactly how many times the pollution limit has been breached.

Flooding
The land in which the development has been proposed is currently classed as level 2 and 3 flood zones. both zones mean that flooding is probable. if the land is turned from soil and grass with over 1600 Trees on to concrete then the water will no longer have anywhere to flow to. This means it will either flow down to the houses below the new development or it will flow into the canal which in turn will then breach the canal. the land has been altered in the past to stop this from happening however this would undo all of the work which was undertaken. the most recent work was carried out in 2018 behind the cricket club when a breach was found and was waterlogging the grounds.

Wildlife
Within the land specified there are numerous animals that are protected and endangered. Although requesting information on what will be done to retain these animals and not disturb them, we have not had any satisfactory responses from either the council, the canal and river trust or Taylor Wimpey. some of the species which are protected are Bats of which 4 different breeds where found, Hedgehogs which are now classed as endangered. Kestrels are currently nesting as I type this and numerous other birds that have been known to the area for years.

Open Space
Since we started looking into this development we received two important pieces of information from residents who have lived here many years. one was that a large area of the land to be developed was reclaimed in 1977 and a letter was sent to residents (dated 23rd November 1977 - reference number E/JC/DAF/SC/5-32-18/C) stating that "the majority of land reclaimed as a result of this scheme will have an after-use of Public Open space or Tree planting"
Along with this, the proposed development site includes an area of land marked as ‘Pennington Flash Country park’ on 3 separate National Ordnance survey maps published from 1984 to 1991, 1992 and 1996 – as referenced in Appendix 7.1 Annex B Envirocheck – Historical Mapping National Grid data. When pushed on this the council stated that they have no internal records on this however as a group we have asked for confirmation on who is wrong. the national Grid Data or Council Internal Documents.

Privacy
Unfortunately for a lot of the residents who are on the border of the development, they are about to lose every aspect of privacy they have in their homes. most of the properties are bungalows that have been converted and currently, the plans show the new development being either 2 story or 2.5 story houses. along with this, due to how uneven the ground is and the fact that the land was built up towards the canal. the new development will sit 2.5 meters above most properties. as well as this the developer will also be getting rid of all trees which would help protect the privacy of residents and they are also not providing any buffer zone between the development and existing houses apart from a small section facing Woodley Grove.

Woodland
As stated above the developers have been advised to get rid of 80-90% of the trees on the land. this includes a large woodland area which has some trees which are over 100 years old. in the original plans that were objected to but passed it shown the woodland area largely unaffected. however, Taylor Wimpey has decided to remove a larger part of the wooded area and replace it with a couple of trees throughout the new development. this will also kill off a much-needed habitat for wildlife as stated above.

Invasive Plants
Surveys that have been carried out have recently unveiled sections of the field that are affected by Japanese Knotweed, Japanese Hogweed, and Himalayan Balsam Plants. When pressed on this the council stated that it was made aware of Japanese Knotweed in late 2019 however the survey done for Taylor Wimpey state that it was recorded in both 2014 & 2018. We have asked the council to provide a treatment plan for this plant as it can take multiple years to get rid of and if work commences whilst it's still on site then there is a good chance that it will be spread to not just neighboring properties but properties throughout the current estates. Japanese Knotweed is expensive to get rid of once it starts growing and lowers the value of any houses affected by it, or in some circumstances if the property is within 7 meters of it.

Local Infrastructure
All our local facilities and services are currently under massive pressure. Due to the pandemic, the NHS has currently got a backlog of medical treatments which in some cases have been pushed back as far as 18 months. It can take weeks to see a local GP and school places are extremely tight. so much so that a lot of people are now having to take their children out of the area to get them an education. Our police station has been closed, our nearest Hospital is in Wigan. Dental Practises are not taking on any new clients and this development will not only increase traffic so the road will need more often repairs but the only money they are putting in for schools is for 2 extra classrooms at a school across the other side of the town to the development pushing even more traffic further into Leigh.

How can you Help?

All we are asking is for you to review the planning applications provided on the home page and if you disagree with the developement then use the template we are providing (this will be available over the weekend) and alter it so that it represents the issues you have with the proposed development.

Each household can object, and every person who is registered at the address can individually object themselves. For example a household with 3 people of voting age who are registered at an address can send in 3 different objections from 3 different email address's and that will officially count as 3 objections. However sending one letter for all 3 people would only count as 1 objection.

You have a couple of ways to Object to these applications but the two we recommend are

  • Submitting your objection to the application on Wigan Councils Planning Portal
  • Email your objection to the relevant people/departments

We do suggest that you do both though as that makes sure that all parties recieve the objection and theres no denying that they had them.

If you need help objecting then please click here to be taken to our How To Page

Objection Letters

The following list are the objection letters we are aware of. we have redacted all information we view may identify individuals. to have your objection letter listed please send it through to us at correspondence@wwrag.co.uk and we will redact it for you and place it here.

How to Object

There are two main ways to object to any planning applications. We do recommend that you do them both though to make sure that your objection is not missed.

Using The Planning Portal
Objecting using the Wigan Council Planning Portal is each however there is a 2000 character limit on each post. once registered you can post multiple times and it still goes through as one objection but we suspect they put a 2000 character limit on it to discourage people objecting.

on your browser search for Wigan Council Planning on a search engine like google. You want to click on the first link.
On the wigan council website click on the link shown by the arrow below.
Then click on the Register Button and fill out the form. This will send an email to the email address provided to activate the account. (check your spam folder if it doesn't show)
Once Registered, Press the login button shown below and enter the username and password you created.
Once you have successfully logged in go to Search -> Planning -> Simple Search
Its at this point you want to enter the planning reference number. For this development there are 2 to object.
The Non-Material Ref is - A/20/89654/NMAS
The Reserved Matters Ref is A/20/89543/RMMAJ
If your not sure which one you need to object to then CLICK HERE
in most cases you should object to both
Now you should be on the application page. Click on comments and choose Neighbour as the commenter type. Select your stance and enter your objection. if your objection is over 2000 characters. then submit part and then repeat this step to add another comment. it automatically gets attached to your previous comment.


Emailing Your Letter
Emailing the correct people and departments is the second way to submit your objection. the list below are all the people/departments you should include in your email

Planning Services
Attention of Lorraine Robertson
planning@wigan.gov.uk

The Canal & River Trust
Attention of Daniel Greenhalgh - Regional Director
enquires.northwest@canalrivertrust.org.uk

Taylor Wimpey
twmconsultation@taylorwimpey.com

James Grundy
james.grundy.mp@parliament.uk

Contact

WWRAG Objection Letter

Back

WWRAG Objection Letter

WWRAG Privacy Policy

This website does not collect any personal information from visitors of the site, we do record visits so we may see how much interest we have however this data will not be passed onto third parties or used in any other way than to gauge interest in the Westleigh Waterfront Development.

Any Enquiries should be submitted to correspondence@wwrag.co.uk which will be responded to as soon as possible. We are a Residents Action Group so everyone involved is providing their time on a volunteer basis so we may not reply back straight away.

Join the members mailing list

We are currently running a members list to make sure anyone wanting to stay updated can easily be kept up to date via email. To join this group please email correspondence@wwrag.co.uk and ask to join.

Due to us taking your privacy and data seriously you will not be able to send emails to the group members@wwrag.co.uk, if there is anything you want to be passed onto all members please email it to correspondence@wwrag.co.uk and ask us to send it out on your behalf. Again unless specifically asked we will send any emails out redacted of personal information.

To un-subscribe from the mailing list just send an email to members-unsubscribe@wwrag.co.uk and you will be automatically removed.

Templates

The following links provide you with the templates needed for objection to both plans by Taylor Wimpey. They are provided in Word format and you will need to edit each one to include your own name and address as well the current date.