Plans for block of flats and new homes on green land next to rugby pitch

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

More than 40 flats and and houses could be built on green land next to Bolton Rugby Club. Social housing provider Bolton At Home has submitted a planning application to build 44 homes at Avenue Street, Halliwell, close to rugby playing fields and a reservoir.

In planning documents lodged this week Bolton At Home say the homes will be a 12-unit block of flats, four cottage flats alongside 10 two-bed, 14 three-bed and four, four-bed houses. The homes would overlook the nearby rugby pitch.

The plans reveal that 149 trees would need to be removed from the site to create a ‘development plateau’. However, the application claimed there would be a biodiversity net gain from the project by ‘an elaborate landscaping scheme’.

This would see the infilling of the existing embankment to the south to create a ‘native broad leaf woodland’ as well as other planting around the site. The plans state there would be 3.61 per cent gain of habitats on-site as a result of the development.

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A design and access statement supporting the plans, said: “The site comprises of grass- and woodland and is bordered to the north and east of the site by residential properties. To the south of the site, there is a rugby playing field which is associated with Bolton Rugby Club.

“To the west are two reservoirs and associated overflows. “The site can be accessed via Chorley Old Road.

“The overall site area is 22,980m² and is currently unused public open space, a mix of grassland and woodland with signs of neglect and fly-tipping, remnants of a previously decommissioned playground and a footpath which crosses the site.”

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