Samlesbury residents anger at proposals submitted by development company part owned by Freddie Flintoff

Logik Developments, which cites the Preston born cricket star as a company director, has submitted planning applications for three locations around Samlesbury for a number of industrial units, hotel and retail outlets, all of which will be built on grassland fields.

Called ‘Cuerdale Employment site’, the proposal includes up to 170,000 sqm of employment floorspace, up to 10,000 sqm of hotel, 5,000 sqm of Class E(b) retail use (sale of food), and up to 7,500 sqm of offices, with associated car parking, service yards and loading bays, landscaping and access across the three plots of land at Cuerdale.

The application, which was submitted in January, has proven controversial, currently having 487 objections and only one supporting statement from members of the public.

One Samlesbury resident personally affected by the proposals is 61-year-old Nigel Dixon, whose 1850 farmhouse on Spring Lane backs onto site 2 of the proposal, which at the moment is just an empty green field.

Site 2 will include a 31,625sqm unit with a height of 23m – which is the same height as five double decker buses, making it the highest building in Samlesbury – alongside 39 HV loading bays.

Nigel, who has lived in Samlesbury for 20 years, said: “This is a monstrosity that's been proposed here.

“We don't want this, it's like an aircraft hangar size, like an Amazon distribution warehouse centre, and it will be visible everywhere in Samlesbury, it's literally going to be built on the highest points in Samlesbury and it'll be the highest building so it will just dominate the whole countryside.

“The other side of our our fence is the field and there's five trees that will all have to be chopped down. These are 150 year old trees, and that's been in the press lately, people chopping trees down… [It is] devastation that all this agricultural land will be swapped for a massive distribution warehouse.”

As well as opposing the developlent for what it means for the village, the proposed ‘Site 2’ development has already affected Nigel’s family personally as it led to the sale of their home falling through.

Nigel explained: “We were trying to sell our house at the beginning of the year and when this application was submitted, we had to notify anybody who viewed the house. We then had to drastically reduce the price of the house because of it and we eventually did get an offer, which we accepted – I mean, it was, like 150,000 pound below what it had been valued at – but because the people knew about the planning application, they then got their own artist impression of what it would look like behind and then they just pulled out.

“Our properties now unsellable and it’s caused us nothing but grief… Ask Mr Flintoff if he'd like it built in his back garden?”

In the proposal’s executive statement, developers said: "The site forms part of a large wider strategic vision for a garden village and major growth area in this location with significant investment envisioned in Samelsbury. It was announced in October 2021 that the National Cyber Force campus will be located in Samelsbury, which brings a requirement for significant employment space to cater for the campus. By providing flexible employment floorspace, the Cuerdale Employment Sites will help Central Lancashire to realise its economic prosperity goals in emerging high value- added sectors.”

Local residents have already set up an action group on Facebook called Stop Cuerdale Garden Village Action Group, which works to oppose developments like this on their greenland.

This group was set up following another proposal in the town by Story Homes called the ‘Cuerdale Garden Village’ which hopes to build 1,300-homes.

If the Cuerdale Employment site planning application is successful, Logik Developments hope to start work in Autumn 2025.

Logik Developments has been approached for comment.