Worries over plans to make space for school on Redvales Playing Fields

Fifty five objections have been made after the local authority unveiled proposals to dispose of 15,364 sq/m (3.8 acres) of Redvales Playing Fields, which comprises around 30 per cent of the site and is in the northern part of the green space.

A report by council leader, Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, who is also the cabinet member for strategic growth, says the “disposal of the public open space (POS) will make the land available for the council to dispose of for a new specialist education provision”.

The plans come following a damning report by education watchdog Ofsted this year which found “significant work” needs to be done to improve the quality of special educational needs and disability services in Bury after “serious failures” were uncovered by inspectors.

But residents have objected to a special school being built on the playing fields site, which is currently being managed by the council’s leisure services, for a number of reasons, including that the land is used to play sports, fears that the development would lead to more traffic and that there would be an increase in flooding.

The area of the land, highlighted with a red boundary line, where the school would be built under the plans (Image: Bury Council report)

Among the objections, a volunteer at Warth Fold and Redvales Sports Club said: “This portion of the field, while subject to severe flooding in the winter, is a valuable area for football training in the spring/summer/late autumn months and is used by all our football member teams and for rounders practice.

“The importance of this area cannot be understated because we are severely lacking in space for training.”

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Another resident said: “It has been used for decades for dog walking, parties, bonfires, sunbathing, informal gatherings, sitting alone, games played by householders and their families, pitching tents to see how they fit together, nature study, raspberry and blackberry foraging.”

A third objector said: “It is a valuable green space and its existence stops the flooding, that already happens [and is] getting worse which could damage the existing homes. Gardens already flood including my family's home on Brecon Drive and ducks even make their home on the field at times as it turns into a large pond! Building the school will only increase the chances of flooding.”

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A fourth resident said: “The current layout of roads means there is not enough accessibility as it is already like a rat run, and even if a new road was built it would be rather dangerous to other pedestrians and road users, and [would be] adding more traffic to an already chaotic area during school drop offs and rush hour.”

In response to the concerns, Cllr O’Brien's report said: “Many of the objections relate to the future use of the site and are not relevant to this decision, which is solely to approve the disposal of the POS.

“Any future proposals to build on the site will require planning permission and there will be the opportunity for the public to make comments on any proposals that come forward at this stage.

“These issues will therefore fall to be considered at the planning stage.

“The POS proposed to be disposed of comprises a small part of the Redvales site. The majority of the Redvales site will remain open space for members of the public to use for recreation purposes.”

Cabinet members will consider the objections on Wednesday, September 4 and “balance the loss of public open space for members of the public who use it for recreational purposes against the wider public benefit of the need for specialist education provision”.