New housing estate approved in Euxton in spite of road safety fears

Chorley Council’s planning committee gave the green light to a proposal to create up to 16 properties on a plot next to Chorley Rugby Union Club in Euxton.

However, the decision was opposed by a third of the councillors sitting on the committee, who raised concerns over the loss of sporting space and also road safety issues – with one member branding the access to the proposed estate “an accident waiting to happen”.

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The part of the Chancery Road site where the detached dwellings will spring up is currently disused – and was last in operation as a golf driving range.

The rugby club has been redeveloped in recent years, with a new club house and playing facilities being funded by the building of 50 houses elsewhere on the land. However, back in 2019, the artificial grass pitch that formed part of the then ongoing revamp was reduced in size – leaving vacant the area where the additional new houses have now been approved.

While vehicles will access the newly approved development via the footpath-free Westway, a more pedestrian-friendly entrance will be created off Chancery Road and onto Chancery Fields – part of the 50-home estate – for those travelling on foot or by bike.

Concern over the safety of the suggested arrangements previously prompted councillors to defer their decision on the application – made by Chorley Community Trust, the charity that operates the rugby club – until they had been to see the site for themselves.

While highways officers at Lancashire County Council were satisfied with the plans, some committee members were far from convinced.

Debra Platt said that County Hall had displayed a lack of “local knowledge” by failing to realise that most of the places that young people living in the new houses would want to access lie on the Euxton side of the development, rather than the Astley Village side – and so would be quicker to walk to via Westway than Chancery Road.

“A lot of the children will want to go to an Euxton school, not an Astley Village school. Astley Village has no shops…Euxton does.

“It’s got a McDonald’s, which is a considerable draw…[and it also] has a skate park which is the biggest in the area for miles.

“It’s unfortunately an accident waiting to happen [not to] accommodate…people walking along Westway. It’s a bad idea [to walk that way], but if they don’t…put pavements in, it will happen [anyway] – and someone will come a cropper,” warned Cllr Platt, whose ward covers the southern part of Euxton.

Fellow committee member – and cabinet member for planning – Alistair Morwood agreed that anyone walking along Westway would “take their life in their hands”. However, he added that “human nature“ meant some people were bound to do so regardless.

“We can’t build into planning everything that would stop people doing what they want to do,” said Cllr Morwood, who was one of the majority who voted in favour of the plans.

Sport England had lodged an objection to the application because of the loss of sports land that would result from the development. The organisation considers that a lack of use for a facility does not necessarily equate to “an absence of need”, councillors were told.

While the overall rugby club site is allocated for both sport and housing under Chorley’s local plan, the volume of residential development for which it is earmarked totals 50 dwellings – the number already built.

However, Chorley Council’s head of planning, Adele Hayes, said that the application site was “unlikely to be brought forward [for] any formal sports use, as it would be impartial to do so”. She added that, on balance, the recommendation was for councillors to approve the scheme.

Committee member Cllr Criage Southern mused over whether the land was redundant to Chorley as a whole – or just to Chorley Community Trust. He added that while the applicant would be making a financial contribution to improving playing pitches elsewhere within the borough – some £25,500 – that did not amount to directly replacing what would be lost.

Both councillors Southern and Platt put forward separate amendments, each proposing that the application be rejected – for different reasons – but both were defeated and the plans were ultimately approved by a majority of eight votes to four.

Community trust chair Graham Brown had told the meeting that the charity aimed to provide the people of Chorley with a facility “that we can all be very proud of” – and said that the housing would help achieve that ambition.

“All revenue from the sale of this land will go towards the improvement of the facilities and the provision of a mixed sporting and community [site]…to benefit thousands of people,” Mr. Brown said.