Appendix D LM Report
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23 March 2018 Delivered by email Sir/Madam Ref: PEEH3006 Roe Green/Beesley Green Conservation Area Appraisal Spatial Planning Salford City Council Civic Centre Chorley Road Swinton M27 5BY Dear Sir/Madam Representations to the Roe Green/Beesley Green Conservation Area Appraisal on behalf of Peel Holdings (Land and Property) Ltd This letter has been prepared by Turley Heritage on behalf of Peel Holdings (Land and Property) Ltd (‘Peel’) who have significant landholdings affected by the consultation. It sets out representations to the draft Roe Green/Beesley Green Conservation Area Appraisal (the ‘Council Appraisal’) as published for consultation by Salford City Council (‘the Council’) in February 2018. This letter should be read in conjunction with the enclosed Heritage Assessment prepared by Turley Heritage dated March 2016 (the ‘2016 Heritage Assessment’) and submitted in connection with the first draft of the Council Appraisal (dated February 2016). Summary We are concerned that despite serious shortcomings having been pointed out in our representations to the first consultation the Council has failed to properly apply relevant guidance and policy and has not taken account of representations received. We request urgent reconsideration of these matters in the light of the representations set out below and the Heritage Assessment that accompanies them, which was shared with the Council in response to the first consultation. For reasons set out in the Heritage Assessment and in this letter, the Council Appraisal is flawed in fundamental respects and should not be adopted in its current form. If it is adopted in this form, it is likely to have no weight as a planning consideration. 1 New York Street Manchester M1 4HD T 0161 233 7676 turley.co.uk "Turley is the trading name of Turley Associates Limited, a company (No. 2235387) registered in England & Wales. Registered office: 1 New York Street, Manchester M1 4HD." The Draft Appraisal has not been prepared (either properly or at all) in accordance with: (i) national planning policy and guidance, per the NPPF (2012) and the NPPG (2014); and (ii) the advice entitled 'Conservation Area, Designation, Appraisal and Management' as published by Heritage England in February 2016. More importantly, the Draft Appraisal is contrary to section 69 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. Specifically, it is plain that the Council has taken into account immaterial considerations when purporting to determine a revised boundary of the Conservation Area. This is contrary to the established dicta in (amongst others) R (on the application of Arndale Properties Limited) v Worcester City Council [2008] EWHC 678 (Admin). We strongly urge the Council to re-visit the basis upon which the Council Appraisal (as a whole) has been predicated and the conclusions reached as to the proposed re-designation of the boundary of the Conservation Area, in each case having full and proper regard to the established policy/guidance and legal principles to which the Heritage Assessment and this letter refers. Land at Beesley Green The Council Appraisal seeks to retain Land at Beesley Green within the conservation area. In the Council’s response to previous representations set out in our 2016 Heritage Assessment it has stated that the land in question forms the majority of the Beesley Green and Worsley Woods character area which has been identified as having a predominantly rural character and feel. The expanse of the open land which is fringed by Worsley Woods is considered by the Council to be integral in and intrinsic to defining the character of Roe Green and Beesley Green as a distinct village within a wider conurbation and separates Roe Green and Beesley Green from Worsley. It is also considered by the Council that the land played a key part in the rationale for the original conservation area designation in 1970 which was as a landscaped green area in contrast to the heavily developed areas of Lancashire. The Council response notes that the 1848 historic map identifies a narrow line of trees along the course of Kempnough Brook (with much of the land which now forms Worsley Woods being agricultural fields) and states that it is likely that most of the woodland was planted around the 1850s for the 1st Earl of Ellesmere as naturalistic landscaping for private leisure pursuits. The Council concludes that is visible from the tennis courts and cricket ground and that the ‘open views’ from the cricket ground are important in defining the character of the historic area. The Council notes that there was little evidence of field boundaries on historic maps from the 1970s when the conservation area was designated and that the motorway was part of the character of the area at the time of designation. It is considered that the existence of Worsley Woods together with the raised position of the motorway, means that the motorway ‘is effectively screened’ from views within the conservation area, however the presence of the motorway serves to reinforce the importance of the area of open green space. We disagree with this assessment for three principal reasons and would re-iterate and supplement points previously set out in the 2016 Heritage Assessment. Historic map regression and visual site inspection show that, although the land remains undeveloped, the rural and agrarian qualities of it have diminished. This is due to the loss of historic field boundaries and definition over time (including the evidence of clay extraction and a former sand pit), the historic intrusion of rail infrastructure and more recent significant road infrastructure. The land is not part of an area of open countryside. It is bounded by the M60 motorway and former mineral railway line (now the Roe Green loopline) and any rural character of the land is undermined by the presence of the motorway, acoustically and visually. Indeed, the impact of the motorway is acknowledged by the Council on Map 13 of the Council Appraisal entitled ‘Negative and Neutral Factors’. The M60 is identified on this map as a ‘negative factor’ for reasons of ‘noise and air pollution’ and elsewhere within the Council Appraisal, the ‘significant noise impact’ generated by the motorway is noted. This effect is evident all year round but is particularly pronounced during the winter months when, contrary to the 2 Council Appraisal, traffic on the motorway is both visible and clearly audible from the Land at Beesley Green. Surrounding residential development is also evident during the winter months when dwellings to the north east of the site, beyond the loopline are clearly visible overlooking the land. The Salford Landscape Character Assessment prepared by the Council in September 2007 identifies land at Beesley Green is within an area classified as an Urban Fringe Lowland. It forms part of three sub areas described as having the following key features: • The predominantly open land and relatively few buildings provide a relaxing visual contrast to the more densely developed adjoining urban areas; • The deciduous woodland still occupying the How, Wardley and Worsley Woods Cloughs and the slopes around and above the Worsley Hall garden centre provide a seasonally changing scene; and • The continual roar of traffic and bold artificial lines and materials of 2 major road interchanges dominate 2 of the sub areas. These factors, together with those discussed above, combine to reinforce that Land at Beesley Green is open land within an urban area. As previously stated, today, the Land at Beesley Green comprises open and undeveloped land to the south and south east of Beesley Green, beyond the cricket ground, which is largely enclosed and screened from the wider Conservation Area. It is not easily appreciable or experienced from a large part of the designated area and its physical and visual presence and contribution to the Conservation Area is limited. Views of the land southwards from Beesley Green are only glimpsed and interrupted by existing built development (as shown in Figure 9 at Appendix 2 of the 2016 Heritage Assessment) or are filtered by tree cover lining the railway cutting to the east of Beesley Hall. During winter months the tree cover is less, but views of the land are still filtered and the lawn of the cricket ground is the more visible and distinctive area of open space in views from the east (this is illustrated in Figures 16 to 21 at Appendix 2 of the 2016 Heritage Assessment.) The only clear and open views across the land are from the cricket ground or the land itself. As previously stated, the land is not an ‘essential component’ of a wider historic area as referenced in the Historic England guidance, nor is it an open area where its character and appearance concerns historic fabric, ‘to which the principal protection offered by conservation area designation relates’. The rural origins of the village and its ‘atmosphere of a village’ are manifested by other features/aspects and characteristics of the Conservation Area, such as the retained Roe Green and Beesley Green. Pevsner noted (and this is referenced within the Council Appraisal) that Roe Green in contrast to the surrounding suburbia “has the atmosphere of a village, with low houses around an ample green”. The Land at Beesley Green is an area of privately owned agricultural land that is distinct and separate to the historic Greens – the open spaces that define the spatial pattern and qualities of the village. The land is not of special interest and should not be retained within the designated area. In the Council Appraisal, the Council has sought to attach importance to or elevate the value of the Land at Beesley Green by reference to views across the site to Worsley Woods. Views across the site are not expansive or picturesque.