MORE than 70 concerned residents of Winwick attended a packed meeting at St Oswald’s Church Hall to discuss a recent planning application by Bellway Homes to build 163 homes on land off Golborne Road.
The proposed development is close to the site of the famous Battle of Winwick – the last major battle of the English Civil War.
At the meeting last Friday, organised by residents themselves, the discussion, led by Stuart Mann and Andy Griffiths, covered concerns about the impact on traffic, schools and the lack of infrastructure in Winwick.
Stuart said: “The residents are rightly worried about the implications of this development on our small village. With over 1200 homes approved for Peel Hall, and another 50 across the Parish, together with this proposal our already over-used roads and services could become stretched to breaking point, and there is little mitigation in any of the proposals to address our worries.”
Andy added: “In our opinion, the planning application contains a number of errors that make it seem like our village has the ability to support these homes. Residents are already having issues registering with a GP or a dentist in the local area, with some having to travel as far as Manchester to get treatment”
Emma Lavender, who helped organise the meeting, commented:”A number of residents aren’t on social media and may not even have Internet access. We wanted to make sure that everyone had the information they needed to understand the proposals and comment on them, as they will impact the whole of our village.”
The site is said to be well connected to the wider region by excellent transport links, There is also shopping at the Gemini Retail Park, 4500m away, and at Newton-le-Willows, 3500m away. Winwick Lesure Centre is only 800m from the site, offering sports facilities and social activities.
Bellway wants to build 163 houses on the site – including some affordable homes. They also plan to provide open spaces and parking for the development.
The planning application can be viewed on the Warrington Borough Council at https://online.warrington.gov.uk/planning/ by searching for reference 2023/00204/FULM
2 Comments
Bellway have been fined by the environment agency to the tune of £100,000 on one of their sites due to their dodgy practices of moving contaminated materials around their sites and dumping the waste on the land they intend to build on so watch what you buy off them – reading reviews of lots of unhappy homebuyers it is mind boggling. But thats what happens when our greenbelt is handed over to these greedy muppets instead of being used for what it was intended which is agricultural land. I wonder when there is no more land left to grow our food on will the penny finally drop. This council and government who are allowing it to happen all over our town need to find more productive use of their time by repurposing brownfield sites shame they take the easy way out as money seems to do all the talking with them
Winwick is caught in the perfect storm. The place is already a car park at peak times. The development at Peel Hall will massively increase congestion. Then there’s Parkside.
This application should be put in the bin.