Call to remove Crimble Mill site from housing masterplan after floods

Campaigners are calling for a green belt site earmarked for 250 houses to be removed from the region’s 20-year development blueprint following the weekend’s flooding.

The fields around Crimble Mill, in Heywood, were left under around five foot of water after the River Roch burst its banks when nearly a month’s worth of rain fell on the region on Saturday.

The land is included in the latest draft of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, and bosses say the new homes would generate enough cash to fund the regeneration of the 18th century mill – currently classed as ‘at risk’ by Historic England.

The scheme was a new inclusion in the second spatial framework draft released in January – replacing the controversial Lane End proposals in Rochdale’s land allocations.

However, the Crimble Mill plans have proven no less contentious, with campaigners objecting strongly to the loss of green belt.

They say that the weekend’s floods highlight why the land is not suitable for housing – and should be removed from the spatial framework plan altogether.

 

 

Iain Brown, founder of Save Crimble Mill Green Belt, says he hopes the region’s planners will see it is ‘not a sustainable proposal’.

“I would like to hope that somebody would see that rationale of the unsuitability of developing in such an area. It’s just not a sustainable proposal – unless you are the developer who wants to make X-amount by building X-amount of houses on there and the council wants more council tax,” he said.

He fears that, as Crimble Mill lies downstream of Littleborough and Rochdale town centre – both of which suffered flooding and road closures over the weekend – any future development there would be vulnerable to rising waters.

His concerns are magnified by the fact the spatial framework also proposes major developments, Littleborough with the Roch Valley and Smithy Bridge – including more than 500 homes.

With Rochdale town centre being protected by a flood defence scheme, he says the area around Crimble Mill would be left worryingly vulnerable.

He also fears for Queens Park, just downstream of the mill, which is designated as ‘new green belt’ within the spatial framework.

He said: “Crimble Mill must have been four foot from water coming up into the mill area itself, the river was a good six-foot higher than it would normally be on average.

“It came up and the field itself had massive flood areas in it – I’m talking huge areas of water.”

Mr Brown continued: “Until this weekend the flood zones did exactly that – because those fields were flooded on Saturday afternoon, Queens Park was under a good five foot of water at the bottom end around the river, there were hundreds of feet of water, millions and millions of gallons and by Sunday morning it was all back within the river channel.

“Within 12 hours those flood areas had done the job nature learns to deal with it itself. But if the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework undertakes all the development there will be a lot more water and it will be coming a lot faster because it will be channelled.

“It’s like rolling a snowball down a hill – as it rolls down it gathers and gets bigger and faster.”

He added: “We can’t make things any clearer, it’s a flood zone and with all the issues it’s got it will flood.”

 

 

Councillor Liam O’Rourke, who represents North Heywood, said the events of the weekend would have to be taken into consideration by the region’s leaders.

He said: “Obviously we’ve seen flooding at the weekend and, whilst the rainfall was exceptional, nonetheless it happened – and people have got to look at that when coming to the decisions on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

“The consultation has now finished, and we now have to step back, work with Greater Manchester and see what they come up with before it goes on to the government and the planning inspectorate.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter