DEVELOPMENT VISION Blackburn Road, Padiham Huntroyde Estate June 2017 Revision F LAND SOUTH OF BLACKBURN ROAD, PADIHAM. CONTENTS Fig 1 Aerial Site Plan Fig 2 Historical Mapping 1893 1.0 Introduction Fig 3 Historical Mapping 1933 Fig 4 Plan Vue extract of Burnley BC’s original I&O plan 2.0 Site and Surroundings Fig 5 Composite Proposals Map Fig 6 Sustainability Plan Fig 7 Flood Risk Mapping 3.0 Site Context Fig 8 Personal Injury Collision Data Fig 9 General Arrangement Drawing of Proposed Site Access to Employment Site 4.0 Planning Policy Context Fig 10 Illustrative Masterplan 5.0 How the Site Meets NPPF Sustainability Requirements APPENDICES 6.0 How the Site Meets the Purposes of Green Belt Requirements A Letter of representations dated 10.2.15 to Burnley Borough Council (BBC) 7.0 Traffic & Transport Matters B Letter of representations dated 23.8.16 to BBC preferred 8.0 Commercial Market Demand I&O consultation C Letter of representations dated 26.5.17 to BBC proposed submissions 9.0 Vision for the Site consultation, including plan & letter of support from Maple Grove Developments 10.0 Conclusions Prepared by: TOWN PLANNING CONSULTANCY ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CONSULTANCY COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANCY HIGHWAY CONSULTANCY Page 2 Page 3 LAND SOUTH OF BLACKBURN ROAD, PADIHAM. 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 This site lies to the south of Blackburn Road, Padiham and provides an ideal infill employment site to provide additional employment land adjacent to Shuttleworth Mead Business Park and the western edge of Padiham. 1.2 It has easy access to and will contribute toward the existing services and facilities in Padiham, as well as good links to the wider area and access to the M65 J8. 1.3 The site is in single ownership being owned by the Huntroyde Estate, one of the principal landowners in the Padiham area. 2 SITE AND SURROUNDINGS 2.1 The site is triangular in shape. It is currently grazing land. It is relatively flat and slopes gently to the south. It extends to 8.8ha or thereabouts. Along Blackburn Road a hedge fronts the site at the eastern end with a dry stone wall along the rest of this frontage. There are a mixture of hedgerow and trees along the other 2 sides of the site and three main lines of hedges/trees demarcating field boundaries. 2.2 Stirkins Farm on the main road frontage is not part of the site. 2.3 The southern boundary is demarcated by the Padiham Greenway Sustrans cycle route on the line of the old railway and abuts the existing settlement boundary of Padiham to the south. The eastern boundary also abuts the current settlement edge of Padiham is bounded by Old Parsonage Lane which is a cul de sac and public footpath. Beyond the lane is the Fig 1 - Aerial Site Plan cemetery. There is a short row of terraced houses fronting Blackburn Road to the north east corner of the site and a longer ribbon of houses on the north side of Blackburn Road all of which are within the existing Padiham settlement boundary. Page 2 Page 3 LAND SOUTH OF BLACKBURN ROAD, PADIHAM. 2.4 The section of Blackburn Road across the site is straight, so access and visibility are 3.2 Mapping from the 1930’s, shows the site with field delineation and the newly unfettered. It is also a main bus route with several bus stops along the site frontage. built coal fired Padiham Power Station and Rail sidings. The Power Station was decommissioned in 1993 and subsequently demolished in the early 00’s. 2.5 The site is approximately a mile from J8 of the M65 to the south and also the A56/ M66 to Manchester. It is about half a mile at its nearest point to Padiham town centre. 2.6 There are no site constraints. The site is free of overhead pylons and cabling and so far as we can ascertain no underground cables or fixed assets are within the site. 3 SITE CONTEXT 3.1 The earliest mapping freely available indicates that the site was used for agricultural Fig 3 - Historical Mapping 1933 purposes, with the Great Harwood Loop Rail line to the southern boundary. Image looking North East 1970’s Image looking North West 1980’s Fig 2 - Historical Mapping 1893 Page 4 Page 5 LAND SOUTH OF BLACKBURN ROAD, PADIHAM. 4.2 We have held discussions with the planning policy officers at Burnley Council. At 4 Planning policy context the preferred options consultation stage in August 2016 we reiterated why our client’s site is the most appropriate site in Padiham for employment use. (see letter dated 23.8.16 at Appendix B) Burnley’s emerging Local Plan background to employment site allocation at Padiham 4.3 This Vision document has been prepared in addition to support the further 4.1 Our clients’ land at Blackburn Road South was included in the SHLAA as HEL/160 representations made to the BBC proposed submissions document, in the letter and was shown on the original Issues and Options map as the preferred employment dated 26.5.17 at Appendix C which includes a letter of support for the development site in Padiham. We have since February 2015 (see attached letter dated 10.2.15 of the site from Maple Grove Developments who are in discussions with our clients at Appendix A) promoted this site as the most appropriate and policy compliant site concerning this land. for employment use in Padiham. 4.4 We have reviewed the SHLAA March 2017 document and are concerned at the inconsistency of approach applied in assessing our clients site and the Eaves Barn Farm site. Both these sites are currently in the Green Belt despite what the SHLAA reports and summary highlight. HEL/160 4.5 Appendix G of the SHLAA March 2017 document refers to developable employment sites and HEL/171 also known as EMP1/13 or Eaves Barn Farm is summarised as being open countryside and also having been shown as the preferred employment site at I&O, preferred options and submission stage. 4.6 However, the March 2017 SHLAA is incorrect as HEL/171 is not in open countryside, but is actually in the Green Belt and was not the preferred site in the I&O but was at the preferred options stage. HEL/171 4.7 Not only is it in the Green Belt but furthermore HEL/171 lies south of the River Calder and further away from the main settlement of Padiham. It abuts the settlement Fig 4 - Plan Vue extract of Burnley BC’s original I&O plan boundary only in so far as it is to the south west of the river and Shuttleworth Mead Page 4 Page 5 LAND SOUTH OF BLACKBURN ROAD, PADIHAM. Business Park which forms the settlement boundary. HEL/171 has no connectivity principles for EMP1/13 notes in order for this site to come forward it will also need and is divorced from the main settlement of Padiham by the river. It directly conflicts to provide a flood alleviation scheme and also improvements to the highway junction with paras 79 and 80 of NPPF as it will not preserve the openness of Green Belt and possibly a new bridge for access, all of which are major costs. The site is a and it will not assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment. It will lead site known to house Protected Species, including European Protected Species, is to coalescence of adjacent settlements as Fig 5 (a composite plan of the proposal a National Priority Habitat and would need to address the impact on the setting of maps for the three councils (Burnley/Hyndburn/Ribble Valley) who abut each other Workhouse Farm, a Grade II Listed Building. It has no public transport available and at the Blackburn cycle links would involve using the A6068 by pass with inherent safety issues. It has Road/A6068 junction) no connectivity to Padiham and would extend the settlement boundary in a way clearly demonstrates. that contradicts the NPPF purposes of Green Belt and would significantly narrow the The Eaves Barn Farm Green Belt gap in this area and would detract from its openness. site is liable to flooding 4.8 Our clients site HEL/160 is shown in Appendix C of the SHLAA March 2017 as and lies within Flood an excluded employment site with the reason being ‘Contrary to national policy; Zones 2 and 3a on the ‘Inappropriate’ development in the Green Belt ‘. The following sections of this report Environment Agency clearly identify why our clients site is in fact the more policy compliant site and Flood Map (refer to should therefore be the preferred employment allocation. fig 7). Access to the site has not been 4.9 Looking at site constraints and whether the requirements for NPPF sustainability agreed and our clients and Green Belt purposes are addressed in comparing these 2 sites which are both Fig 5 - Composite Proposals Map for the Blackburn Road/ A6068 understand it would Green Belt in the adopted plan. Then our clients site offers the less constrained, area (Burnley/Hyndburn/Ribble Valley) require a bridge link to more policy compliant sustainable location and the loss of it from Green Belt would the existing employment land to the north. It is traversed by a plethora of pylons not impinge of the purposes of that policy. and power lines that will limit the height of buildings and reduce the developable area to well below the 9.72ha (gross) indicated and removal or relocation of pylons and power lines is extremely costly and given the suggested uses of B1/2/8 would be unviable.