80 houses planned for Northern Steels site

Reporter: RICHARD HOOTON
Date online: 04/02/2010

Firm must move to save jobs

A SHAW firm is planning to sell its site for a development of 80 houses to enable it to relocate.

P+D Northern Steels Ltd says it has to sell its base at Moss Hey Street to keep the business going and safeguard jobs by finding a more efficient site elsewhere in Oldham.

Bosses have submitted an outline planning application to Oldham Council for the demolition of its buildings to be replaced by two, three and four-bedroom homes.

But neighbours have concerns that the proposal may be an overdevelopment. They say it could cause traffic chaos next to the new Asda store.

The firm has been established at the current site, which includes a warehouse and office, since 1972. The land is used for storage and flattening steel plates. The company employs a dozen full-time and three part-time staff.

Letters have been sent by the firm to residents of Moss Hey Street and neighbouring Wild Street and Leach Street. They do not specify where the firm is looking to move to.

Neighbours have experienced problems with frequent lorries trundling past their homes to the site and squeezing past parked cars — but are concerned that building so many properties will bring new problems.

One said: “I’m concerned about the impact it will have. It seems a lot of houses. It will create a lot more traffic and it’s the disturbance from building them. I think it will make the traffic a lot worse.”

Residents have already had to put up with disruption from the demolition of Dawn Mill, in connecting Greenfield Lane, and the building of the Asda supermarket.

P+D’s site on Moss Hey Street can only be accessed by Greenfield Lane, which could cause problems for supermarket customers accessing the store.

The letter states: “The reasons for us submitting this application are to secure the long-term viability of our business in the face of the shrinking UK steel industry. In order to continue to trade, we need to find a new, more efficient site elsewhere in Oldham.

“The aspiration for the business is for us to move into dealing with new products, which will need to be stored inside. We have looked into building premises on our existing site, but the only option we have is to move to another location.

“By achieving outline planning permission for the houses on our existing site, we will be able to sell the site and use the proceeds to relocate our business.

“Without this money we will find it difficult to compete in an increasingly competitive market, and especially one which has been so badly affected by the recession.”

It lists benefits from the proposal, including the potential to increase house prices, less noise and disturbance by removing the business and HGVs.

It says it’s likely there will be contributions towards the provision of affordable housing and public open space. The firm’s managing director Peter Martin was not available to comment.