CPRE Lancashire celebrates a successful campaign to protect Burnley’s Green Belt
CPRE Lancashire is delighted that our responses to the Burnley Local Plan process, questioning assumptions for housing end employment projections throughout the plan process, have been taken on board by the Inspector. Our hard work has paid off, and we’ve succeeded in protecting the Lancashire’s untouched countryside! A number of housing and employment sites in the Green Belt will now be saved.
As a result of CPRE Lancashire’s hard work, the Inspector’s Report called for housing requirements to be lowered from 209 to 194 dwellings per year, and the employment land requirement has also been reduced. This ensures that plans for new dwellings will be justified by the most recent evidence.
Employment sites proposed for agricultural land
The original plan proposed two employment sites on farmland in protected Green Belt areas (the Burnley Bridge Extension and Shuttleworth Mead South). We questioned the assumptions used for the housing and employment projections, and made recommendations that the Local Plan should have lower housing and employment land requirements on the Green Belt. The Local Plan team listening to our concerns, and the Green Belt land requirements have been removed from the Local Plan’s Site Allocations.
Call to delete sites in open countryside heeded
The Inspector has also recommended the removal and amendment to other site allocations for employment and housing to take account of the up-to-date situation regarding construction, alternative proposals and likely delivery. CPRE Lancashire had called for the deletion of the former Ridgewood High School site proposed for 42 houses, among other sites in open countryside due to the harm this would cause to farmlands and rural landscape character.
The Full Council is due to meet to discuss the adoption of the Local Plan. CPRE Lancashire will continue to engaging with the Council to make sure that it follows through with the Inspector’s Report recommendations. This way, we’ll support the Council to develop the area sustainably whilst making sure that the rolling hills of Lancashire are protected, especially its untouched Green Belt areas.