Housing development adoption saga nearing a finale

Councillor Dale Mulgrew

A housing development which was built over fifteen years ago and for which the Council has been negotiating its adoption ever since, could soon be nearing the end of the saga.

This New Broad Lane development was built way back in the mid 1990's by Alfred McAlpine Homes.

It only saw its highways adopted a couple of years ago after Councillor Dale Mulgrew discovered an anomaly after receiving a complaint about an associated storm relief pond, which was built as an environmental requirement of the original planning application.

This pond forms part of a larger green space, which effectively is a buffer zone between the Craiglands estate, off Oldham Road, and this new development. This green space remains the last piece of the jigsaw still to be agreed on between the developer and the Council.

Councillor Mulgrew has been working on this matter for around four years. He recently met with representatives of Taylor Wimpey to establish progress on the pond adoption. The final chapter rests on a sum of money that the Council expects the developer to pay in exchange for it to take on the responsibilities of this piece of land and the all important pond.

Up to now this has been a stumbling point; but after the meeting Councillor Mulgrew was a bit more upbeat that progress can be made over the next couple of months.

He said: "This has been going on for far too long, although I have found Taylor Wimpey very responsive to my requests for various activities to take place to make progress on this matter, the reason why this has taken so long is the classic case of stalemate between a developer and the Council.

“This frustrates because there is very little pull on either organisation to get something done - the developer is content because it is not having to payout any non-essential costs and the Council is satisfied as it is receiving a penalty for non adoption.

"I know residents locally would just like to see an end to this with the Council reaching a closure that would see the land adopted. Such an important step would allow the community a stake in the future of this well visited recreational space."

A spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey Manchester, said: “We are in discussions with the Local Authority and are hopeful that we will soon reach an amicable solution.”