Homes crunch time after five-year wait

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.