Bartle Village Objection

Bartle Village Objection

16th of April, 2021

Woodplumpton Parish Council objected to planning application 06/2020/0888 in Higher Bartle for a new roundabout off the Preston West Distributor Road to access 1100 homes/and a primary school. You can read the full objection letter to the left.


The Preston West Distributor Road was subject to a full inquiry and construction work has already commenced. Due diligence should have fully appraised any commercial or residential opportunities prior to its commencement. Preston City Council has already identified a 5 year supply of deliverable housing land - of which 5,300 homes are already proposed in NW Preston. Consequently, there is no evidence to suggest that a further 1100 homes are needed in this area of Preston.

The green fields which will be accessed by the new roundabout are not included in the Local Plan and have not be appraised in terms of sustainability for commercial or residential use. Indeed, development in this location may have adverse impact on the NW Preston strategic location which is intended to provide a mix of residential and community facilities, including a primary and secondary school.

Despite our objections and the fact the City Council has announced it already has 13.6 years of deliverable housing land (the requirement is 5 years) the City Council has decided that as the PWDR will change the function, purpose and appearance of the area, the proposed development can be considered as a sustainable urban extension to Preston. Consequently, the application was approved and the developer will now need to submit a detailed application showing the type and layout of the houses.

The Parish Council believes that as the new homes are being built in Woodplumpton Parish, new schools should be built there too. Whilst it is understood that the applicant will be required to sign a legal agreement requiring them to pay £8.513m towards 418 primary school places and £3.805m towards 110 secondary school places, which is in addition to the £6.938m Lancashire County Council has already secured for school places for the permissions in NW Preston, it should be noted that the funding of places is not the same as providing a new school as the payment can be used to bring existing schools up to capacity.

Currently LCC are expecting parents to travel to Lea, Cottam and Ingol to fill places in those schools first. As Covid has brought home the need to restrict travel and maintain social distancing, this is not sustainable and may lead to a situation where new schools are promised but are never delivered, which seems to be the case with many of the ‘promised’ community facilities in NW Preston.

The Parish Council continues to make this point on every planning application submitted.