Residents say developers are ruining their town after an application to build 343 new homes off a new highway was submitted to the council.

Land on Bailey's Field in Darwen was sold to Altham-based McDermott homes last June, and now, a planning application to build on the site, off Ellison Fold Way, has been submitted to Blackburn with Darwen Council for consultation.

The Bolton News:

However, residents living in Avallon Way and Lisbon Drive have had enough and have launched a petition to try and get the site, which is on brownfield land, reclassified as greenbelt land.

They are also concerned about the number of disused mine shafts in the field, of which there are at least ten (two were discovered under Ellison Fold Way in 2018 during construction of the new road), and say developers have not taken this into consideration, nor have they thought about the amount of wildlife on the site, nor the impact more houses will have on the community.

Mineshafts uncovered underneath £3.2m Darwen road project

Elliott Gazdula, who lives on nearby Avallon Way said: "Land on Bailey's Field has opened-up over the weekend, exposing a number of disused mine shafts.

"This suggests the land is still unfit to build on.

"People in the area are really not happy about this at all, we don't think we've been consulted enough on it.

"We only just received a letter from the council telling us we have until March 9 to comment on the proposals, but with the land already being sold it just feels like it's already a done deal - it feels like everything's already been done behind closed doors."

Ellison Fold Way

Ellison Fold Way

Mr Gazdula has now launched a petition to have the land reclassified, stating building on Bailey's Field will reduce the amount of leisure and recreational land available for people to exercise on, at a time when outdoor exercise is being pushed by the Government.

In addition, the petition cites that the gross income of people living within Blackburn with Darwen is far lower than that of the UK average, and asks how the council expects its residents to afford mortgages on brand new housing.

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Furthermore, it raises the question of how the council can justify increasing the total number of houses in the area when in 2019, more than 2,700 properties in the borough were classified as empty.

The Bolton News:

Mr Gazdula, 28, added: "Should those empty dwellings not be being filled before more are built?

"We want the council to suspend the full development of Bailey’s Field and reclassify it all as greenbelt land and will be applying for the site to be made an asset of community value.

"The amount of land that's being lost to developers is ridiculous."

A possible Holden Fold housing design.

A possible Holden Fold housing design.

In 2018, documents submitted to the planning department admitted Bailey’s Field was in a ‘high risk area’ because of mining in two seams of coal at 110metres to 130metres last worked in 1913.

The Coal Authority believed the risk of ground collapse was ‘very small’, but warned the council that mine entries and shallow mine workings may pose a risk to public safety and ground stability and would require further investigation.

Regeneration boss at Blackburn with Darwen Council, Cllr Phil Riley, said the site, which is 75 per cent privately owned, with 25 per cent belonging to the council, had been safeguarded for housing since the 1990s.

The Bolton News: Bailey's FieldBailey's Field

He commented: "The developers are well aware of the mines and they know they have to fix this.

"We had the same issues when Ellison Fold Way was being built, and it's a challenge they know they will have to overcome.

"The developers are not just going to build on land that they think will result in houses falling down a mine shaft.

"They will be filling-in the mines."

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Cllr Riley said Bailey's Field is a brownfield site, which can be legally built on; but expressed that every time the council went to build on a site that had 'a bit of green on it' then people complained.

He continued: "We are not apologising for building new houses or aspiring Darreners to live in the houses.

"A lot of the new houses in the area are selling well, and selling to people who are moving into the borough from Bolton or Manchester.

"I am comfortable that this is something we are happy to do.

"And as for the empty housing situation, the council does its best to issue CPOs on the properties that are a blight on the community, but many of these houses are privately owned.

"Besides, when you have people wanting to move into Darwen from Manchester, you do not want to be offering them run-down terraces."

The Holden Fold site.

The Holden Fold site.

Cllr Roy Davies said he is concerned that points raised by the public had not been addressed, and was worried of the effect more new housing would have on Darwen's infrastructure.

He said: "There are lots of problems here, and teamed with other developments, such as the homes planned for Holden Fold, it brings issues of congestion, weight restrictions on narrow roads, and the effect on other areas.

"New estates are always welcome, but not at the cost of older terraced houses being abandoned, and open to unscrupulous landlords purchasing properties cheap, and letting out to transient renters."

The Bolton News: Bailey's FieldBailey's Field

In January, a letter to residents from Jake Berry, the MP for Rossendale and Darwen, stated that along with hundreds of residents and Darwen's Conservative Councillors, he opposed the developments, citing there were 'plenty of other brownfield sites that should be developed first'.

It stated: "I have always been clear that I will support residents who object to unwanted planning applications on our greenbelt, playing fields or open green spaces and I believe that much more can be done to prioritise building on former brownfield and industrial sites."