Largan column: 'I hope the council rethink their accelerated housing plans'

High Peak MP Robert Largan's latest column is on the growing issue of building new houses throughout the borough.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of house building in the High Peak. Many sites across the borough are currently under construction and planning permission has already been granted for even more houses to be built.

I am very concerned about the scale of this development and the pressure this is putting on our infrastructure and public services.

We all know about Glossop’s longstanding traffic problems, which is why I have been so vocal on pushing to get the Mottram Bypass built. Our schools are also facing pressure, with the badly needed expansion of Glossopdale School recently being signed off. New developments under construction like at Hawkshead Mill in Old Glossop are only going to add further pressure.

There are also significant traffic problems in Buxton and along the A6 corridor. The major developments taking place in Buxton and Whaley Bridge are only going to add further pressure. That’s why, along with the MPs for Macclesfield and Hazel Grove, I hosted a summit between High Peak Council, Derbyshire Council, East Cheshire Council and Stockport Council to find a way to work together, on a cross-party and cross-border basis to try and solve those traffic problems.

So I am disappointed that Labour-run High Peak Council are pushing ahead with their ‘Accelerated Housing Delivery Programme’.

This programme involves selling Council owned land to developers. A number of sites have been identified across the High Peak, including off Melandra Castle Road in Gamesley, Roughfields in Hadfield and Hogshaw in Buxton.

The Council are currently holding a consultation on the sell off of Hogshaw, where an online petition has sprung up and already been signed by over 2,000 local people.

A ‘Save Roughfields’ group has also been started, with huge numbers of residents in Hadfield and Padfield getting involved to protect their much loved green space.

Nevertheless, the Council are carrying out topographical surveys on sites like Roughfields and Melandra Castle Road in Gamesley to find the best way they “might be brough brought to market”.

I am not against building new homes. But they need to be built in the right places, with the infrastructure and public services in place to cope. I sincerely hope that the Council listens to local people and rethink their ‘accelerated’ plans.

In the meantime, I hope residents will consider joining over 3,000 local people who have signed my longstanding petition calling for no major new developments in Glossopdale until the Mottram Bypass has been built. The petition can be signed at www.robertlargan.co.uk/buildthebypass. 

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