Councillor fury over ‘gridlocked’ road as 170 Atherton homes approved

Wigan Council's planning committee has approved the ‘reserved matters’ application for the 170 homes on land east of Leigh Road and south-west of Bee Fold Lane and west of Millers Lane.

Councillors were told the principle of development on the site had been established in an ‘outline application’ in 2020 and therefore issues over the main access road on Crab Tree Lane were not under consideration, as its viability had already been decided.

But independent councillors and members of the Friends of Crab Tree Lane group put up arguments against the use of Crab Tree Lane, arguing that members of the committee should visit the site before making their final decision. 

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Plans for the 170 home development have been approved (Image: Bloor North West)
Objectors argue that even now Crab Tree Lane which leads from the site to a roundabout already gets choked up with traffic.

Independent Network Cllr Stuart Gerrard, who represents Atherton North, was voted down in his attempt to get colleagues to visit the site to see the issues for themselves. He told colleagues: “I’m beginning to wonder why we sit here on this committee.

“I’m fed up of being told we can’t look at this and we can’t look at that. It makes me wonder why we come here sometimes.”

Cllr Gerrard referred to a video shot by a member of the Friends of Crab Tree Lane which he said shows the ‘chaos’ already taking place on Crab Tree Road, particularly at its junction with Hamilton Street.

“We’ve got HGVs going down there and there are mini-buses which can’t even get down the road. It’s not going to be fun with the extra vehicles coming and going once those homes are built. Someone might just get injured. People will have to put up with this for years.”

An example of how some of the properties will look (Image: Bloor North West)
However, Cllr Susan Green smith said members of the committee ‘do fight the residents’.

“But we can only vote on the application that is before us today,” she said. “I can’t see a problem with what we are voting on. It’s already been decided that [the access road] will lead to the site.”

Earlier in the meeting, Sam Evans, a member of the Friends of Crab Tree Lane group, spoke to the committee on behalf of the objectors.

She said: “We are not NIMBYs (not in my back yard) and we know that more than 800 houses will be built across the wider Atherton south site, but the outline process did not address the specific issues with Crab Tree Lane, simply describing it as a ‘minor access point’.

“It is intended that a steep narrow lane will be the sole access point for 170 new houses and all their vehicles. It will also be the only access point for all the construction traffic.”

She said that this would take place near the ‘very large’ Parklee Community School and Atherton High School and the nearby Tesco store.

“Queues of gridlocked stationary traffic are already a daily occurrence on Hamilton Street, as our video footage shows.”

“This is why more than 100 Atherton residents felt that it was important to formally object,” she added.