Plans for more than 70 affordable homes near Fitton Hill

A plan to build more than 70 new affordable homes in Oldham is set to be given the go-ahead later this week.

Developers Vistry Group want to transform a 2.5 hectare plot of land in Medlock Vale into a new neighbourhood with 72 affordable houses.  

The site at Rosary Road, roughly the size of three and a half football pitches, sits on the fringe of Fitton Hill, a large social housing estate just outside of Oldham town centre. The land is currently undeveloped green space once home to the former Marland Fold Community Special School. 

The school closed in 2004, and the building was later lost in a fire in 2017. Now the land could be transformed into 37 two-beds and 35 three-beds, if the proposal is approved at a planning meeting on Wednesday, December 17. 

Around 46 of the homes will be available for social rent, while 26 will be available for Rent-to-Buy, according to Vistry Group.

Pictured above: Map of Rosary Road development.

A planning statement by AshtonHale Limited said: “The proposal presents an opportunity to revitalise a parcel of land within the Fitton Hill area and provide quality, family accommodation within the locality.”

Not everyone is convinced by the plans. The application received a total of six objections from local residents, with many worried about the loss of green space, an oversubscription to GPs, dentists, and schools in the area, and a loss of privacy. 

One objector wrote: “We only recently moved into the area and have been pleasantly surprised by the peace, tranquility and privacy we have been afforded, often sitting in the garden on a summer evening and watching the visitors (foxes, badgers and hedgehogs).

“This is all going to be taken away as we will be overlooked by several houses being built on the very land our visitors currently reside on. It is a splendid oasis now in danger of disappearing forever.”

Others added that the ‘sense of peace that attracted families here will be destroyed’ and that ‘once this space is lost, it cannot be replaced’. 
“It replaces tranquillity with congestion, concrete, and disruption,” another warned. 

But town planners claim the benefits of the project outweigh its negatives and have recommended the project for approval. 

They noted that though there are ‘deficiencies’ in the local green space offer, the project at Rosary Road would be ‘unviable’ if they demanded a Section 106 contribution – funding that the council can request from developers to help fund new green spaces and amenities for local communities.  

Town planner Stephen Gill wrote: “[The development] would make a significant contribution to the borough’s housing supply and deliver a substantial proportion of affordable housing, which constitutes a major public benefit addressing an identified local need.”