Housing estate of 211 rental homes approved for site in Radcliffe

Kellen Homes were granted planning permission by the council last week to build the homes at the site on York Street and Bury Road, close to the Morrisons regional distribution centre.

Some of the land, close to the River Irwell, is the former site of Unifi Dyed Yarns Ltd.

Public open space will be provided in the northern part of the land and all the homes will be privately rented.

A meeting of Bury’s planning committee heard from, Gareth Glennan,  representing Morrisons, who strongly objected to the plans, saying building the homes could affect "future operations" at the distribution centre, which employs around 350 people.

He said: “Morrisons currently operate without restriction 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

“My clients have got significant concerns about this the future operations at the site.

"The proposal has been reviewed by four different acoustic consultants and three of those concluded there was likely to be significant adverse impact in noise terms on the future occupiers of these homes.

“Simply put this is not a suitable site for residential development. This scheme is highly likely to result in a poor quality environment.”

He said he believed noise mitigation for some of the homes could include sealed windows which would mean windows could not be opened during hot weather.

An image supplied with the plans

Mark Waite, from Kellan Homes spoke in favour of the plans and said the homes would not have sealed windows.

He said: “This will be out third development. We specialise in brownfield sites. We don’t speculate, we’re builders and we’re privately owned.

“There is a need for new homes on brownfield sites. The site is in a sustainable location and is brownfield.

“It is the sort of site the planning system should be prioritising. There has been focus on noise.

“Following the objections received from Morrisons the scheme has been fundamentally redrawn and assessed again against noise criteria. This assessment was independently reviewed.

“The noise originating from Morrison is recognised, accounted for and mitigated against and it doesn’t include sealed windows.

"The site will have twice the open space than policy requires and has received only one objection.”

Councillors unanimously approved the development.