Peel wins Spen Moor housing battle

PEEL Holdings has won planning permission to build 191 houses at Spen Moor near Bury – one of the group’s first property assets.

It marks a victory for Peel after years of wrangling over the land.

In the 1990s it fought against a council application to have the land registered as green belt, and had an earlier application for 170 houses knocked back.

Peel says the scheme will “enhance local biodiversity through the delivery of a managed Ecology Park” and “provide accessible parkland”.

But nearby residents objected saying it will increase traffic and take away valued open space.

Some 260 people formally objected to the plans and a further 3,200 signed a petition.

The council passed the application at a heated public meeting last week. Peel said planning permission was conditional on the completion of a legal agreement relating to the long-term management of land both within and outside the site covered in the application.

Phil Rothwell, planning director at Peel, said: “The Spen Moor site was one of Peel’s first acquisitions in the early 1980s.

“Peel has unsuccessfully attempted to secure planning permission for the site for many years so we are very pleased to have secured a ‘minded to approve’ resolution from Bury Planning Committee.”