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Homes crunch time after five-year wait
Reporter: Janice Barker
Date online: 24 August 2010
ROWS of terrace houses will give way to suburban semis if plans for a major new housing development in Derker are approved next week.
The plans have been stalled for years, but go before the planning committee next Thursday — five years after proposals to clear the area for development were first approved.
The plans by Bellway Homes, in conjunction with Oldham Council and Guinness Northern Counties, are for 148 new semi-detached houses, two and three storeys high, in the Housing Market Renewal area.
The large-scale development is bordered by Afghan Street, Acre Lane, Harcourt Street and Crabtree Road.
The site is covered by a Compulsory Purchase Order made in September, 2005, but a public inquiry and a series of legal challenges by local residents held up the development until October last year, when they were refused permission to go to the Supreme Court.
The area was once covered by 200 terrace homes. Now, most are demolished and only seven are occupied.
One has been bought by the council, three owners have agreed to sell, and the remaining owners are in negotiations.
The new two, three, four and five-bedroomed houses, in brick and tile, will be split 70 per cent private, and 30 per cent for social housing. Afghan Park will become a feature at the centre of the site, and will be remodelled. There will be tree planting, although some trees will be lost and some moved.
Roads within the scheme will become Homezones with shared surfaces for people and cars, to slow vehicles down and make them safer for pedestrians.
Oldham Council’s Regeneration Department says the scheme is critical to Derker’s revitalisation.
Guinness Northern Counties has been awarded £1.3 million for the first 24 affordable homes in the scheme, but plans have to be approved by September, and work started before the end of the financial year in March to secure the money.
Any delays could also jeopardise future funding for the second phase of which will all be “pepper potted” throughout the site.
Three letters have been sent objecting to the plans, concerned about the loss of trees, loss of privacy, and reduction in on-street parking.
Comments
Does Derker need five bedroomed houses?
Get it right,Derker will do,the previous inhabitants having been now "suitably" punished for almost voting a minority party to represent them,they have now been re-posessed and fragmented all over Oldham.Who do you think will need the 4 and 5 bedroom houses,it is not rocket science is it?
I don't beleive it, wiseowl is at it again. I though that the parlimenary master plan is to create MORE housing not less...Correct me if I'm wrong dave but it seems that there will be be 52 FEWER properties than before, now THAT'S not rocket science either is it..!!!! And judging by the properties built on the old granville mill site, they will all be of a far inferior build quality that the ones that have taken And don't forget, the people that have been displaced can't afford them anyway
How I hate the unspoken sub texts. It may well be that the four and five bedroomed houses will help to meet the needs of larger Asian families. There is nothing forbidden about saying it. But note, the report tells us that the housing will range comprehensively in size from two to five bedroomed houses. I suspect the development will meet a range of needs for all Oldhamers.
The quicker the better for the area get the old properties down and new up, the area will benefit from a newer cleaner image.
STATUSQUO.. If that's the case then why have they left up and refurbished homes that were built in the 1800's yet are demolishing perfectly good homes that were built in the 1930's
Yes C Ayre. Why knock down 2 rows of houses (Abbotsford Rd) but refurb the 3rd row (Mayfield Rd) when they were all built at the same time? Either they are all fit for purpose or none.
The council has fractured a community and now thinks it can forget those people and build another.
JMTS,I am certainly not one to hide behind unspoken sub texts but in this case you are wrong.I had virtually the same content on a similar Derker story go unlisted last week because I had been up front with my comments,and yes I did mention the word Asian.
Having seen some of these Bellway Homes I am certainly not impressed by them as most look 'cheap and tacky'. The terraced homes that are being knocked down are/were of a far better quality. Progression does not always mean things are better.
Have Your Say
This looks like more good news it can only improve this area as at the moment in places it looks like a bomb site new development can lift an area if done sympathetically
By Barros @ 24/08/2010 12:38:13