Beehive Mills to be demolished as plans for 121 homes passed

Officers waved through the application last week after previous plans were thrown out by councillors late last year.

The development will be home to 36 two-bedroom, 78 three-bedroom and seven four-bedroom dwellings.

But members on the planning committee were not aware that the latest plans were approved on Friday, the day after council elections.

They refused permission in December because the company behind the plans said it could not afford to make financial contributions to the council.

This came after landowner Arndale Properties agreed to pay more than half a million pounds toward education and health provision in the borough.

Developer Countryside Properties has now agreed to contribute £163,000 towards primary and secondary education in Bolton following a new application in March with identical plans.

In addition, the developer is not required to provide affordable housing under the latest plans because it benefits from a government incentive to encourage developers to build on vacant brownfield sites.

Councillors from the area have welcomed the decision, but some members of the planning committee said the contributions are still too low.

Cllr Bob Alen, who accused the developer of trying to “con” the council at a meeting in December, said the newly agreed amount is “nowhere near enough”.

He said: “It really annoys me that developers time and time again agree initially to a reasonable contribution and then come back at a later date and plead poverty and thereby reduce it.”

His Conservative colleague John Walsh said that the offer seems “very small” for a development of that size.

Cllr Allen said that some of the reasons the developer gave for not offering any money at the time were "weak" and sounded like excuses.

Countryside Properties stated that “abnormal costs” associated with the development are significantly higher than what they originally anticipated.

This includes the remediation of the former industrial site, acoustic glazing to elevations facing the railway line and works for highway adoption which would result in an additional £1.8 million of development costs.

Great Lever councillors Madeline Murray and Mohammed Ayub welcomed the news that the homes will be built.

Cllr Murray was told by planning chief Paul Whittingham that the developer offered £100,00 in its latest application but she did not expect the council to successfully negotiate anymore money than that.

She said: “It’s better than nothing, but we still need the houses. We just want it down and houses built. We just really need it. I’m just delighted to bits.”

However, many members of the planning committee told The Bolton News that they wanted a final say on the development.

The nature of the application means it does not need to go to the committee but officers said that it is “right and proper” that members have oversight on any decision to modify the terms of the Section 106 agreement back in December.

Lib Dem councillor David Wilkinson said he thought the application should go back to councillors given its size and the concerns raised by the committee.

He said: “Questions need to be asked as to why officers think they could make a decision when there’s already been a decision by committee. We gave them a general direction, but I don’t think we gave them carte blanche.”

Indepedent councillor Debbie Newall, who is in the process of rejoining the Labour group, agreed.

She said: “I always think if something has come to committee, then the final decision should be a committee decision. Because it was refused, I would have preferred it to come back to committee.”

Labour councillor Nick Peel said he was “a bit in the dark” about the decision but noted that the vast majority of planning decisions are delegated to council staff.

He added: "It’s exactly the type of site that the council is hoping to be developed. These are closed brownfield sites and this ultimately does protect green field sites.”