The Queensway proposition rumbles on today with the closing arguments at the public inquiry being exchanged.
If given the go-ahead, Marton and St. Annes residents can expect an enormous housing estate of over 1000 homes situated between the two, flooding the already busy roads and local services with new population that are apparently queueing to jump into these houses.
The standard rhetoric was spewed out by Kensington’s barrister: job creation and an economy boost. Once again the Ransom Road was used as bait.
This road is between Cypress Point (Kensington’s other successful development in St. Annes) and School Road, which links on to the A583 then M55 motorway. It is currently a single lane country track at best and if you’re unlucky enough to have to drive down there beware of oncoming Range Rover Sports driven by WAGs at high speed.
How is it being used as bait? Simple. It was promised (but not stipulated in the planning application) as part of Cypress Point about 10 years ago, yet due to Karl Oyston wanting a king’s ransom for the land; the fact that it takes an eternity to compulsory purchase him and the fact that once they’d built Cypress Point Kensington didn’t care about the local infrastructure, it has still not been constructed properly. Judging by the comments surrounding the Queensway inquiry it won’t be either – unless they are given the go-ahead for this huge development.
If Denley Barrow gets his way, most of the fields on here will be concreted
I’d like the gauntlet to be thrown down and for Kensington to be told that they must build this road in its entirety before their application will even be considered, but given the Government’s stance on new house building and that the Government is desperate for companies to be seen to be being successful despite the economic conditions it’s unlikely that this approach would bear any fruit.
More likely Kensington would walk away with a nicely rubber stamped planning application with no strings attached.
I’m amazed that they haven’t considered the fact that there are no schools anywhere near these areas so they would have to get these in before the houses were filled. In addition you’ve got the increased impact on other resources such as healthcare. The nearest hospital is miles away and there aren’t any local doctor’s surgeries (although whether there will be any local surgeries left once they open these new health centres at Whitegate Drive and St. Annes Road remains to be seen).
My nightmare is the traffic all these new homes would create: cars flooding on to Common Edge Road, Queensway and all connected arteries. These roads are already busy and Blackpool council doesn’t exactly have a good track record when it comes to keeping road surfaces maintained.
If you want to follow all the Kensington articles, I’ve added a kensingtongate tag which you can find on the right in the tag cloud!
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Cheers Phil, like you I fear the worst, we have the same problem with those bastards in Wyre council.
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The “road” was also mentioned in the Whitehills business park expansion plans (another Kensington quality development) – it’s the most talked about road since the M1 (the first motorway in the country because the BBC’s full of southerners that don’t recognise the Preston bit of the M6 was built first).
There is mention of a primary school – but no secondary schools, no doctors, no dentists, no secondary schools and we actually had a problem with falling roles for primary schools according to Fylde when the Lytham Quays development was being discussed.
There was consideration that a tennis club be moved to the site (from near Avondale Road/Caryl Road on the Blackpool Prom side of the town) to create “recreational land” that was apparently a necessity at the time of the planning application but that went pear-shaped and didn’t appear in the final plans (it took the first morning of the enquiry to decide which plans were the right ones given there was so much documentation flying around).
Great article Phil!
PS _ Whitgates health centre is already open and has been for quite a few weeks as Mrs F has been on their MRI machine. Advise using a taxi or bus if you need to go as (as usual for Blackpool health provision) parking is a nightmare.
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Can someone please tell me where the exact location of these new houses is planned for? I can’t seem to get a straight answer out of any Gazette articles, they keep referring to the Moss. I live not far from ‘the Moss’ and its a huge area, so where are the houses planned for? Personally I love the Moss as it is I don’t want it desecrated with new houses. I am all for new housing but in the right place.
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will this not form a conurbation with Blackpool and St Annes?
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The plans have changed quite a lot over the appeal time so I couldn’t tell you with 100% accuracy. But the 1,150 house Queensway application is on Lytham Moss from the back of the existing houses on Heyhouses Lane from the East side “the new road” which I think may be roughly the current location of the moss road (Cypress Point to the Whitehill/Cropper Rd/School Lane roundabout) though the map’s not clear to the west Kilnhouse Lane. South right up to the existing housing and North up to the airport land with Easterleigh a sort of pocket in between (link of map here:)
http://www2.fylde.gov.uk/1/00/04/64/00046485.pdf
Then there are currently two applications ongoing in Blackpool for Marton Moss.
There’s a plan for 640 houses – exiting on Progress Way and a further plan for 507 houses around Moss House Road.
Of course the “SHLAA” – a government demand that councils find places to build houses for the next 10 year’s supply, shows the M55 Hub as being the heart of the numbers of houses needed – but Kensington don’t own that land and meantime are putting in all the applications they can to try to get them approved before the overdue planning decisions have been made.
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Thanks for the info, that’s another one that gets me how do they plan to build 500 houses off Moss House Road that is a relatively small area.
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It’s quite large actually.
Have a look at this and you can see there’s more to the Moss than just the area between Moss House Road and Progress Way.
I think Kensington paid about £5million for all of that land, and if they build 500 houses on it at 200k each then they pocket £100million. Nice work if you can get it.
If you look at Docky Pool Lane, you can see it goes from Moss House Road up into a bit of an estate. That was built by the Moore brothers about 5 or 6 years ago.
WhenIf Kensington get to build their estate we’re going to have the ultimate Noddy Town right there.Also worth looking at is Gordon Marsden’s defence of the Moss. Yes, amazingly, he has done something worthwhile!
You may also want to look at John Prescott’s Greenfield hitlist.
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Interesting but I don’t like the utter shite that Ian Austin was coming out with ‘Marsden and Humble are 1st class MPs speaking up for their communities and constituents’ typcial Labour.
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John Prescott, a useless idle slob, if there were ever one!
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Its madness, it will put an intolerable strain on infrastructure.
That bastard GaryPayne of WBC planning has just allowed a resubmission of the houses (558) at Burn Naze on the old power station site.
Did he obtain contributions under the 106 provision for road improvements?
Not a penny, I hate that crooked twat.
Imagine all those cars coming down Bourne way, ie the school run and all those extra lorries for the waste plant and the building of the power station??
That junction will be jammed solid with cars; total chaos!
Total gridlock, he doesnt give a fuck.
New offices for Gary Payne and Anal Vincent opening, soon at Treblinka, Guantanamo etc……
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Don’t know if you’ve seen yet – Disney have twinned with Swindon
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Swindon, seriously?
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That’s what I thought why Swindon? Still could be worse it could have been Pretend City then again it would actually give them something, its not like they stand out for anything else, 3rd city of the NW my arse. If you ask any football fan where the home of English football is they would probably say Wembley and as a non-football fan I would too, yet according to Preston it is Cheapdale.
Sorry just wanted to get some payback for some of the nasty comments Preston scum have been writing about Blackpool.
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Don’t worry about Preston, they are falling behind, sure some of our regeneration schemes have been tiny compared to Tithebarn but at least they are being built unlike Tithebarn which will never happen.
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Well said Zim Flyer, Shitebarn was a joke anyway. I mean high class shops and restaurants and upscale apartments. This is Preston we’re talking (once voted one of the most working class towns in England by a survey) about not Spinningfields in Manchester or Downtown Manhattan. Hopefully now they will come up with something realistic that won’t detriment other Lancashire towns. Tithebarn only ever benefit Preston, although even that is questionable because it is/was so unrealistic. I can’t resist having a good rant at their expense, give them a taste of their own medicine. Its like Preston paupers keep slagging Blackpool off, but what do they have to shout about? At least we are a thriving resort with 10m visitors a year. Preston hasn’t had 10m visitors since 1989
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Seriously?
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CHEAPDALE!
PRICELESS! LOL LOL LOL
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I quite like it, I was so sick of those scum calling our stadium Gloomfield and childishly calling us Blackpoo all the time. If you go on the LEP site you’ll have a good laugh hearing these deluded souls referring to Cheapdale as a ‘world class stadium’ and ‘the home of English football’. Like I say I am not even a football fan but if someone asked me where I view the ‘home of football’ I would say Wembley or maybe Old Trafford. Hardly anybody south of Bolton West services has ever even heard of Preston.
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lol lol lol lol
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This is madness, we have so much brown field land that needs redeveloping, why dig up green fields.
My way around this is simple, tell Kensington Developments they can have planning permission but only if they connect their “little” estate with the tram system. The cost of building that should sort this little project out.
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Well said Zim, but these councils seem to bend backwards or forwards for these bastards.
Anyone know why?
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All thanks to Nulabour and their friends the tories:
http://www.cebr.com/Resources/CEBR/The%20UK%20drops%20out%20of%20the%20top%2010%20economies%207%20December%202009.pdf
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One reason they fall over backwards is money – and not in backhanders. Approve our scheme or we’ll keep appealing and cost you tens of thousands in legal fees – and we’ll get it anyway because we’ve got the best barrister.
I also heard that in Fylde there was the opinion in the leadership that if they objected too much on details or turned it down, these things go to appeal and they the council then gets no influence at all on what’s built.
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If that is true, then its time for changes in the law?
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