Soap actor believes development masterplan would ‘ruin’ home village

A soap actor has hit out at plans to extend a business park and build hundreds of homes on the green belt, claiming it would ‘ruin’ the village he grew up in.

The latest draft of the region’s 20-year development plan – the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework – includes proposals to expand  Kingsway Business Park across the M62 towards High Crompton and Newhey.

The site, dubbed Kingsway South, would also see around 700 homes built around Junction 21 of the M62 ‘North East Corridor’.

But actor Ben Gerrard – best known for his roles in Hollyoaks and Emmerdale – believes the proposals would ravage the area.

Ben – who lives in Newhey with wife Laura and their children, Jessica, four, and Josie, seven – believes there are several problems with the new draft plan.

He said: “I grew up in Newhey; I’ve lived here all my life. I think it’s a lovely village and I think it’s a shame this is even being considered.

“I think it will ruin quite an attractive village with lot of things going for it.”

He also worries his two daughters will not have the same access to the countryside he enjoyed as a child, when he would spend long days playing football and riding his bike.

“I would never let our two do that; it’s a completely different world now,” he said.

“But the option to take them on a nice quiet walk on a Sunday through the countryside, through the fields and over the tops – all that would change.

“The kids would not necessarily know that – they would not know any different  – but it would be a massive shame for them not to experience it, with it being on their doorstep.

“For that to be taken away would be a massive shame, not just to my kids but all the other kids in the area and those whose would potentially live here in the future.”

While greenbelt would be lost, the spatial framework plans says ‘significant’ swathes of greenbelt within the site would be kept in order to maintain a separation between Newhey and High Crompton.

And planners also say the site would benefit from high levels of landscaping, with existing features being retained where possible, to ‘minimise the visual impact on the wider landcape’.

The proposals also include enhanced links with ‘the neighbouring communities and countryside’ and high-end employment opportunities for residents.

But Ben – who plays Will Scott in Emmerdale – says this ‘won’t wash’ with people, branding the plan an ‘unnecesssary upheaval’.

He said: “It’s quite a desirable place. 

“But I think once they’ve completed it, they would ruin it. It would not be as desirable as it is at the minute. What’s now a nice, quiet village would end up being an overcrowded traffic hotspot. It would be a nightmare.

“The countryside would just be taken away in effect.”

People living in the Pennines say they are already suffering ‘gridlock’ whenever there is an accident on the M62.

And the 34-year-old believes that Kingsway South would bring constant ‘traffic chaos’ to the area were it to go ahead.

He said: “Traffic is going to be a massive problem; I don’t think they understand that. It’s a major, major issue.

“If anything goes wrong on the motorway everything diverts through Milnrow and Newhey, whilst that work is going on, it’s going to be constant.

“And – god forbid anything happens on the motorway- it will be complete gridlock.

“Once the work is done, there will be traffic constantly and if the motorway shuts we will have a massive problem.”

Ben says he also fears that local services, such as schools and doctors’ surgeries, would struggle to cope with the demands placed on them by an influx of new residents.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter