Protected land plan angers locals

PLANNING row . . . Stoneswood Farm in Delph

NEIGHBOURS are furious over plans to build houses on protected land at Stoneswood farm in Delph.

Oldham Planning Committee will tonight consider the application, which doesn’t say how many houses might be built.

The area off Oldham Road has been used as farmland for grazing in the past and is part of both the New Delph Conservation and Tree Preservation area.

Objectors have raised a range of problems, from harm to wildlife to local schools aleady being oversubscribed. A petition has also been handed to planners

Saddleworth Parish Council continues to object to the plan, which is a modified version of one rejected in August 2012

Parish council chairman Mike Buckley, said: “If the land has been designated as protected it should be protected. If not, then the whole of Saddleworth could be developed under plans like these.”

The application has been made by owner John Tomlinson: “The application ticks all the boxes, it is sustainable and provides affordable housing which is needed in the area.

“Of course I can see why people don’t want the development to go ahead: it used to be a green buffer in Delph. But it has now been boxed-in as other developments have begun - despite public objections. I don’t see why this development should be any different. Common sense has got to prevail sooner or later.”