CONTROVERSIAL plans to build 209 homes on the former St George’s playing fields in Salford have been put on hold because figures provided to the town hall’s planning panel were out-of-date.

Salford council’s planning committee voted to defer Bellway Homes’ application, saying they couldn’t make a decision unless traffic information provided in the report was updated.

The application had already proved controversial, with many local residents, councillors and Salford MP Barbara Keeley opposing the development in yesterday afternoon’s council meeting.

Bellway want to build hundreds of three and four-bedroom homes on the 16-acre site in Walkden. They argue it would bring an empty site back into use, and help to meet the city’s housebuilding target – of more than 30,000 new homes by 2037.

But the planning meeting heard that houses would mean the loss of a ‘green lung’, place strain on local services and worsen pollution.

Councillors also heard from residents who criticised Bellway Homes’ recent Swinton development, and those who had concerns about the potential for increased congestion.

One resident, Anna Bartlett, said the traffic in the area was already ‘absolutely horrific’.

To add hundreds more cars would mean ‘giving an age of time to get to work on time,’ she said, arguing that poor public transport options in the area meant anyone moving into a new development would be a car user.

Another local resident said that the traffic condition outcomes presented in the report were a ‘fantasy,’ saying it can take him 20 minutes to cross a roundabout.

“If the development comes forward, I think we could be looking at fatalities,” he said.

Alan Malley, who also lives nearby the proposed development, said that other housing schemes that had been added to the area had been ‘absolute hell.’

“The new development will add a further 200 homes to a road that can’t deal with the existing volume of traffic,” he added.

Other locals spoke out against previous Bellway Homes developments, including the one at Campbell Road in Swinton, saying the scheme had been ‘horrendous’ for the local community.

Bellway’s representatives said they had engaged ‘wildly’ with the public on the proposed development, and said the company had worked ‘proactively and positively’ with council officers to make sure it would fit in with its surroundings.

He pointed out that 20 percent of the 3 and 4 bedroom homes would be affordable, saying this would help get people onto the property ladder.

And he added that the company would pay contributions towards local projects – some £1.4 million according to planning papers – which would include education funding and improvements to Walkden station.

But councillor Richard Critchley said the £10,000 proposed for the station was ‘pathetic.’

He urged the planning panel to consider the application in the context of other developments in the local area, saying that 300 homes are being built on a neighbouring site, and 1,000 more over the border in Wigan – which he said come without the necessary transport upgrades.

He was backed by MP Barbara Keeley, whose written statement said that local infrastructure ‘cannot keep up’ and his fellow ward councillor Laura Edwards, who argued that residents would be subjected to ‘intolerable [traffic] delays’.

Coun Edwards added that Bellway was wrong to describe the green space as vacant, saying it’s well-used by dog-walkers.

“They (Bellway) know that because they installed ‘no trespassing’ signs,” she said.

Ultimately, the panel didn’t rule on the numerous objections raised by residents and councillors.

Although planning officers recommended that the plans were approved, it was traffic data included in the report that stalled the scheme.

Transport for Greater Manchester had raised concerns that the traffic survey data provided – which the panel uses to help make its decision – came from 2011.

Planning chair Ray Mashiter said he didn’t have ‘confidence’ in the numbers to make a decision, and was backed by other councillors on the panel who voted to defer it.

The application will likely return to the planning panel in the next few months.