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No road danger for flats plan
5:51pm Thursday 8th May 2008
Comments (3)PLANS to build a four-storey block of flats in Lostock will not make Chorley New Road more dangerous, the developer has told a public inquiry.
Developer Wayne Seddon wants to demolish a bungalow and replace it with a block of 20 apartments.
Furious residents lodged scores of objections to the plans and submitted a petition to Bolton Council.
The planning committee refused permission for the development in August last year after council offers agreed with residents that it would cause road safety problems.
They also said it was out of character with the area.
Mr Seddon lodged an appeal against the decision, and the matter is now being resolved by a government inspector at a public inquiry.
Transport engineer David Roberts, of Singleton Clamp and Partners, told the inquiry that the proposals would make the road safer for cyclists and pedestrians because he said the design would force traffic to slow down while turning.
He also claimed none of the concerns raised by Bolton Council, relating to visibility, road width and the curve of the junction, would create a highway safety problem.
Mr Roberts said there had been no accidents within 300 metres of the proposed access road in the last three years.
Developers now want to build a new access road to the site, which they claim will make it safer and will not cause any traffic capacity problems.
Nearby resident David Brookes, aged 65, of The Whins, said he agreed that the current access road was dangerous, but said that the new proposal was only slightly less dangerous.
"You're proposing to close one dangerous road and open a slightly less dangerous road, but the current road is only for one bungalow. This new one will be for 20 flats," said Mr Brookes.
A decision on the development is expected in the next six weeks.
Your Say YourThe Bolton News
Ed Stirling, says...
8:32pm Thu 8 May 08
Timing
1 bungalow, 20 apartments! Here we are, yet another speculative, money-grabbing luxury apartment scheme thats missed the boat. Nobody is going to want or be able to buy them, at least not at the luxury prices that would have been in mind.
Its over the bubble is bursting. All over the country now apartment schemes are in meltdown. Unfinished or mothballed. 'Off-plan' buyers pulling out or crapping themselves. Auction houses are full of repossessed flat sales. Prices are tumbling (2-3 years of price falls likely).
The driver of this whole market, buy-to-let is dead (from 40,000 to 1,000,000 buy-to-let mortgages in a decade!). Weve run out of fools caught up in the property madness, and been credit crunched out of the fantasy money (debt). Even the purveyors of the get-rich-quick property scheme, Inside Track, have gone into administration, no doubt waiting for their next scam!
Trouble is there are schemes like this all over Bolton (3 pending apartment schemes in Westhoughton). I cant see happening, unless theyre going to build the low cost housing that is actually needed but that wouldnt be so lucrative. Will these apartments end up in the hands of Housing Associations?
Govt shared equity schemes? More like shared negative equity schemes. Dont do it! If youre looking to buy, wait and save, youll need a decent deposit now anyway. 100% mortgages are gone forever. As are, given the greater scrutiny, liar loans mostly found in the buy-to-let market.
Did you hear the one about the property developer who was into elephants? White ones of course.
tax payer, Bolton says...
8:53pm Thu 8 May 08
I wonder if it the same David Brookes who in 1996 won an Investor in People Award then in 1998 made 200 local people redundant, shifting the work to Slovakia?
If this is the same man then I think my first ponder would be edged toward him thinking solely about himself!!!
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tax payer, Bolton says...
8:16pm Thu 8 May 08
A: A costly public inquiry. At the taxpayers expense of course. Awesome.