You can build, but you can’t get rich

Oldham Planning Committee

THE planning department will use a new clause for the first time in a bid to stop the developers behind a housing complex in Waterhead running away with maximum profits while refusing to provide affordable housing within the scheme.

Moves to build 41 houses and 15 apartments on land at Wellyhole Street were approved last night.

But affordable housing proved a sticking point, with developers Select Quality Homes Ltd arguing that all the measures needed to protect the properties from noise would mean that providing quality housing would not be financially viable.

But Councillor Rod Blyth said: “What if they get planning permission and then they just lay a few bricks and wait for the market to recover and make a huge profit and we have got no affordable housing out of it?”

In order to safeguard against this eventuality, the committee has applied a special ‘overage condition’, for the first time.

This means that if the properties are eventually sold for more money than was set out in the original plans, then the council could demand a share of the profits and use it for affordable housing provision, either by buying properties in the development or elsewhere in the borough.Drive-thru’s coming to townTHE ‘drive thru’ experience is on its way to Failsworth, after councillors passed plans for a fast-food takeaway with a drive through facility and 19 parking spaces on the car park at the junction of Sisson Street and Oldham Road, next to the Rochdale Canal.

Councillor Keith Pendlebury expressed concern that young people might spill out on to the canal area, but the proposed takeaway will be built on the north side, which does not have a towpath, and a wall will be erected to act as a screen between the takeaway and the canal.


Neighbours disregarded

SADDLEWORTH residents left the meeting disappointed after councillors passed plans to build a house on land at 27, Clifton Holm, Delph.

Locals had argued that the land was green belt and had not been been previously developed but the committee decided the house would not have an adverse effect on nearby homes