Preserving Lymm’s Green Belt

Lymm Parish Council urges the Local Plan Inspector to preserve Lymm's Green Belt.

The Plan proposes that over 300 new houses are built on two sites in Lymm. The Parish Council's case was put by Councillor Ian Marks when these sites were reviewed at the Public Inquiry held at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Wednesday. Support for the Council's case also came from the Planning Consultant employed by the South Warrington Parish Councils' Planning Group.

Local people think we have had enough new housing in Lymm in recent years and if it continues, it will damage the identity of the village. We firmly believe the total number of new homes in the Plan is too high and should be reduced with Lymm being reduced accordingly. Some housing is probably inevitable, but the crying need is for genuinely affordable housing, not 4 or 5 bed executive houses.

What is frightening is just how many developers want to develop estates on many other fields around Lymm. These developers, or their planning advisers, were present and were unhappy that the sites they are promoting were excluded from the proposals in the Plan. Thankfully they were not allowed to put their cases for development and could only say why they disagreed with the choice of the two chosen sites. But these people will not go away, so residents and councillors need to be on guard in the future.

The Statham site for a minimum of 170 homes is in two parts. The northern half is next to Statham Lodge and the southern half is next to Statham School. These sites are very prominent when approaching Lymm from the west and perform an important function according to the guidelines for Green Belts. At school start and finish times, traffic congestion is already a serious issue. The M6 over the Thelwall Viaduct causes a lot of noise and air pollution. Statham Lodge is a Grade 2 listed building, and its setting would be spoiled by development next-door.

The Rushgreen site is for a minimum of 136 homes and is next to the new development behind Sainsbury's. The positive aspect is that it includes a new primary health centre and both Doctors' surgeries would relocate there. On the other hand, access is not ideal for elderly people without a car. The big negative is Rushgreen Road which is narrow with buses, HGVs and cars causing a safety hazard for pedestrians. Safety on this road is a major concern to local people and a new development would worsen this. The site is highly visible from the Canal and building would reduce the gap between the settlements of Lymm and Oughtrington, which we have fought for years to maintain.

It will be many months before we know the outcome from the Inquiry.