Historic mill housing plans take important step forward

Plans to demolish an historic textile mill to make way for dozens of new homes have taken an important step forward.

Rochdale Council’s planning committee have approved ‘in principle’ property firm Hallmark Developments’ proposals to knock down Spotland New Mill – formerly home to Dexine Rubber Company – and build 47 houses.

Despite strong public support for the scheme, members were advised to refuse the application on the grounds it failed to ‘adequately address’ noise, air quality and heritage concerns, while also making no mention of ‘section 106’ developer contributions.

But they unanimously voted to give the go-ahead for outline planning permission to develop the 1.6 hectare site – provided conditions are agreed at the next meeting of the committee.

However, a full application will still have to be brought before the committee for a final nod at a later date.

The Victorian mill dates back to the 1870s and – while not protected itself – sits within Spotland Bridge Conservation area, which includes the listed Spotland Bridge Mill and two listed bridges.

It has stood derelict since Dexine Rubber left the site more than 10 years ago, and over the years has been hit by fire, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

Chris Grieves, managing director of Hallmark Developments told the committee that the mill was currently ‘an environmental problem’ that had long been in need of regeneration.

He said: “In an ideal world the planning officers would like to see the mill converted into apartments but, in reality, this is never going to happen, because it simply doesn’t make financial sense.

“The site has been derelict for over 13 years. The local residents – who in large numbers are here today – are frustrated with a lack of progress.

“Our proposal is to demolish the mill building and develop houses on the site – a local residents’ petition with over 100 names has been gathered and it’s clear residents are appealing to the committee – as I am – to support the application.”

He added: “The overriding thing is that any planning decision is a matter of balance. The local residents and I believe that the advantage of houses on this brownfield site, outweighs the disadvantages.”

He finished by telling the committee: “Building houses on brownfield sites is exactly what we should be doing.”

However, Paul Moore, head of planning at Rochdale Council, told councillors it was not as ‘straight-forward’ as balancing the pros and cons of the scheme as, by law, councils have to pay special attention to the character and appearance of conservation areas.

He added that Hallmark had ‘not provided sufficient justification for the demolition of the mill building on site.”

And he told the committee that, while no comments had been received from The Victorian Society, this was not the same as the organisation indicating it had no objection to the scheme.

During discussions members agreed they wanted to see the scheme go ahead.

But there was a split between those who wanted to defer the application so Hallmark could work with council officers to create a more detailed proposal – and those who were keen to see the proposals progress on the night.

Councillor Phil Burke – who moved for the application to be approved – said residents had waited long enough.

He said: “We have seen vandalism, graffiti, fly-tipping, I don’t agree for one minute about the heritage organisation. They don’t wake up every day seeing such an eyesore.

“We have now got a golden opportunity for the people in Spotland to have this site developed and we should not miss this golden opportunity, where someone has come along to demolish such an eyesore.”

But Councillor John Taylor was keen to explore the possibility of keeping the mill – or part of it – to create a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario.

He told the committee there was clearly ‘huge support’ for the plan – and he was ‘100 per cent’ behind it.

However, he added: “I would want to make sure we don’t lose the opportunity to keep the heritage in some way.”

Following long deliberations, councillors ultimately approved the application in principle – pending conditions and developer contributions being agreed to the satisfaction of both parties at the next meeting.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter