Meeting at Stubshaw Cross Labour Club - LDF plans

Last night I arrended a meeting organised by M.A.D. (Makerfield Against Development) to hear residents' views regarding the LDF plans for the Stubshaw Cross area. These plans include:

a. the building of industrial units on the land behind Stubshaw Labour Club
b. the building of a new high school with sports field to replace Cansfield and Byrchall High School
c.both a and b subject to the southern section of a relief road for Ashton from A58 Bolton road to Bryn via Lockett Road - see map below.



The vast majority of those present were against this proposal and the only person who spoke for it was Cllr Donald Hodgkinson.

I oppose this part of the LDF plan for the following reasons:

1. I do not believe that building industrial units on this land will give many employment opportunities. I have visited large warehouses which are run by very few staff. Furthermore as was pointed out in the meeting, there is a lot of spare capacity in the existing warehouses on the South Lancs Industrial Estate

2. The building of industrial units and a new school is subject to an agreed masterplan and delivery of the southern section of a relief road for Ashton.I do not believe that this will bring traffic relief to Ashton and there have been no traffic studies to prove this. However there is a report in existence, entitled Ashton in Makerfield Northern Bypass commissioned by Dr John Holden of the Highways Agency which came to the the conclusion that this road would do nothing to relieve the traffic in Ashton. He also concluded that an all ways junction at junction 25 would not help matters. One of the reasons the last development proposed by Patrick Properties failed was because the road suggested in the plan would have done nothing to relieve the traffic problems in Ashton

3. The plan mentions a new school. At the time of writing there is no new school or plans for one. Ashton secondary schools will be part of the Government's Building Schools for the Future plan which is at present at the first stage of consultation. According to the consultation document produced by the Council Ashton schools will be in the third stage. Local Councillors, the MP and the public have not been shown options regarding what will happen to secondary schools in Ashton, so to talk about a new secondary school in the Stubshaw Cross area is very premature. Ths has been acknowledged by the Education Department in an e-mail to me

4. If phase 3 of BSF comes about and a new school is to be built in Ashton (which I will emphasise again is far from certain) I would not want to see it built in the Stubshaw Cross area. I would want to see it in a much more central position on a campus with other facilities for the community such as can be seen in Platt Bridge where a new school, a new library and health facilities have been built close to each other and which have also contributed to the regeneration of the area.

I would be happy to discuss these matters with anyone who wishes to contact me.