Plans for nearly 200 homes near Oldham

Nearly 200 new homes could be built in a ‘beautiful’ valley as part of a major new development that includes a new Metrolink stop.

Plans have been submitted to Oldham Council asking for approval for up to 192 homes at Birshaw Farm in the Beal Valley in Oldham.  The scheme is being put forward by IDPartnership Northern on behalf of Barratt Homes Manchester.

The scheme is one of the allocated sites as part of the Greater Manchester Places for Everyone scheme. This is a long term plan across every borough in the region except Stockport to oversee housebuilding, create jobs, and protect green belt land from unplanned development.

In the wider plans for the area, around 2,000 new homes could be built alongside new industrial and warehouse space, a local centre, and new access to education facilities. There is also a new road planned from Ripponden Road to Oldham Road as well as new Metrolink stop at Broadbent Moss.

The new homes would be built about three miles north of Oldham town centre and includes an area of greenfield land on the edge of Royton. The development will include wetland landscapes, green spaces, as well as accessible walking and cycling routes according to the plans.

Despite the loss of farmland to development, a design and access statement report said the development will keep ‘existing woodland and mature tree groupings to establish a distinctive landscape character’ with an aim to plan 551 new trees. New ‘high quality’ homes would have between one and four bedrooms.

The plans are proposing homes across three parts of the site with 84 homes to the north, 65 to the west, and 52 to the south. In-between these will be a new wetland.

The vision for the masterplan is to ‘create welcoming, well-connected neighbourhoods that feel part of the existing communities in Shaw, Royton, Heyside and Barrowshaw.’

In a planning statement attached to the application, developers said the project would deliver 100 direct construction jobs and £36.7m of gross value added to the area as a result of the development. If the homes are built, they said an extra £5.5m would be spent by the homes each year with an extra £500,000 of council tax revenue.

While a planning statement said they had sought people’s views on the project and fed them into the plans already, concerns have already been raised in a number of comments on Oldham’s planning portal.

One person said: “Oldham routinely suffers from immense criticism and negativity in the media, but people outside the borough do not realize that areas like the Beal Valley are beautiful, vibrant places to live.

“Long-standing residents like my husband and me have intentionally stayed here for over 30 years precisely because of the strong community cohesion and the exceptional greenery of the Beal Valley. By sacrificing this irreplaceable landscape for developer profit, the council is actively destroying the very assets that make Oldham a desirable place to live.

“If you take this away, there is no reason for dedicated residents to stay. I am now forced to consider taking early retirement and my pension and moving to an entirely different place where the local authority genuinely cares about its green spaces, its wildlife, and its people.”