Supported living apartments get go-ahead in Heywood

Residents with learning disabilities are to get ‘a place to call home’ after plans for new supported living apartments were given the green light.

Members of Rochdale Council’s planning committee voted to approve proposals for a two-storey building of 17 self-contained flats next to the Cherwell Centre in  Heywood.

Rachel Law, chief executive of applicant PossAbilities, said she was delighted that the ‘much-needed’ accommodation, off Cherwell Avenue,  had been signed off.

The decision was made despite objectors raising concerns over ‘horrendous’ parking in Cherwell Avenue and Millbank Street, which they said would only get worse with the new development.

However a condition was added requiring PossAbilities to implement a parking management strategy relating to the six new spaces at the flats.

PossAbilities also runs the Cherwell Centre, which offers a variety of services and facilities to those with physical and learning disabilities.

And  Ms Law told the meeting that there were ‘17 human reasons’ to give the new apartments the go-ahead.
She said: “Seventeen people for the very first time in their lives will have their own front door. People who have spent much of their lives marginalised will soon be at the centre of opportunity and for the first time have a place to call home.

 “This scheme is not so much about the building, but much more about what we believe in for the most vulnerable people in our society.”

Susan Banks, whose 33-year-old son Ryan has Down’s Syndrome, also spoke in support of the application.

She told the panel that Ryan led a ‘full and rewarding life’ but unlike other people of his age had to share his home with four other people with learning disabilities.

She added: “That is not a normal life, he is a man, he is capable but vulnerable  He needs a place of his own he can call home. It’s what we all want for our grown up children.”

However,  objector Brian Dodd, of Millbank Street, said that, while residents accepted there was a need for the apartments, six parking spaces was ‘inadequate’.

He said: “The Cherwell Centre, in the last couple of years, has introduced a farm with various animals, generating a lot more, hence parking every day of the week.

“Monday-to-Friday you can have anything from six to 15 cars parking on the road, some on the path, causing difficulties for pushchairs and wheelchairs, which is not good for local residents that have to put up with it on a daily basis.”

Mr Dodd added: “In addition, when they have a function, the traffic is horrendous. We then not only have double-parking on Cherwell Avenue but all the way up Millbank Street. One resident this afternoon couldn’t get their car off their drive because people park across their drive.

“In our opinion the car parking facilities for that centre are totally inadequate.”

North Heywood ward councillor Ray Dutton, also said there was an ‘opportunity’ to look again at the number of parking spaces.

But the meeting heard that not all the parking problems in the area were generated by the Cherwell Centre, and there were other facilities that contributed.

Ms Law said that the occupants of apartments would not drive, parking was adequate for staff and visitors would ‘invariably be at the weekend’.

Coun John Taylor told the meeting he agreed that the parking issue in the area was separate to that of the proposed apartments, and should be tackled as such.

All members of the planning committee voted in favour of the application bar North Heywood councillor Peter Rush and Coun Faisal Rana, both of whom abstained.