Appeal hearing into Leyland's 'worst planning application ever' cancelled
A public hearing into plans for a controversial housing development in Leyland has been scrapped.
A planning inspector had been due to chair an appeal against South Ribble Borough Council’s decision to refuse permission for a 23-home estate off Cocker Lane in Moss Side.
However, the one-day event, scheduled for 10th March, has now been cancelled - and the inspector will base his decision on written submissions, rather than hearing from the interested parties in person.
The Lancashire Post understands the official will still visit the location before reaching a decision.
The borough council’s planning committee rejected the proposed scheme last May amid a raft of concerns from locals - chiefly about the risk they claimed it would pose to children walking to and from school along the narrow, largely pavement-free route.
A spokesperson for the Planning Inspectorate told the Post: “The appointed Inspector ultimately has the power to review the appropriateness of the hearing procedure and can invoke the provisions of section 319A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as amended.
The Inspector has carefully reviewed recent correspondence and considers that the appeal is now suitable for the written representations.”
A spokesperson for the Friends of Cocker Lane group said: “[We] have submitted detailed planning evidence to the Planning Inspectorate supporting the council’s refusal, focusing on environmental, traffic safety and planning impacts. The group respects that the decision will now be made independently through the appeal process.”
At the committee meeting where the original South Ribble decision was made, mother-of-two Abigail Saunders quoted a comment from Moss Side Primary headteacher Andrew Wright, in which he said the estate created a scenario “where an accident is near-certain to occur involving children, either outside our school or on the roads close by”.
Moss Side ward councillor Michael Green said it was “probably the most inappropriate application” he had ever seen in his near two decades representing the area.
However, Chris Betteridge, the agent for the proposal, said it came with “a number of improvements to Cocker Lane…which will enhance [it] and provide a safer route for all users – not just those of the proposed development”.
He said it would be particularly beneficial for the schoolchildren who currently have “no choice but to walk in the road”.