Council urges Redrow to withdraw 1,380-home plan

A new ‘garden community’ of 1,380 homes in Rochdale has been formally objected to by neighbouring Oldham Council. Last month, Redrow Homes submitted proposals for the huge Stakehill Garden neighbourhood development, close to Slattocks and Castleton, south of Rochdale.

The developer said the site’s ‘special landscape qualities’ will be celebrated with ‘a healthy balance between landscape and built development’. Redrow are seeking full planning permission for 233 homes and outline permission for a further 1,147 along with a local centre, an extension to St Johns Primary School, a multi-use sports pitch and a new access from Thornham New Road.

The site is entirely within the borough of Rochdale but neighbouring Oldham Council have objected as they believe the plans do not comply with strategic plans for the Greater Manchester region, in particular, the Atom Valley innovation cluster.

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Atom Valley is intended to be a 17 million sq ft development, which straddles areas of Oldham, Rochdale, and Bury. Members of OIdham’s planning committee last week supported the objection, which had been worded by the borough’s head of planning, Peter Richards.

He said: “Oldham Council objects to the application submitted by Redrow Homes, on the basis that it does not comply with the proposed policy of the modified Places for Everyone joint development plan. While many of the criteria are of a detailed, application site based nature which Rochdale Borough Council will assess, three in particular are of a more strategic basis that affect the whole allocation and