Plans for a new Lidl supermarket, 43 retirement apartments, four football pitches and a 91-space commuter car park for Bromley Cross train station are to be decided on this week.
Bolton Council’s planning committee originally backed the proposed development at the derelict former Holland Garden Centre off Darwen Road, in September 2021.
But that permission was quashed in January 2022 by a judge after a case was brought by Co-operative Group Ltd against Bolton Council at the High Court of Justice Queens Bench Division planning court.
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That decision was made because the applicant’s full viability evidence was not publicly available during the determination of the application, and that the council had not provided reasons to justify the non-disclosure of all viability evidence.
On Thursday, the council’s planning committee will again deliberate on the he 27-acre site chosen for the new supermarket, with a car park for 125 vehicles, which is partially located within the green belt and part of it is considered to be a site of ‘biological importance’.
The plans also include a retirement living development of 43 apartments for over 55-year-olds, a mix of one and two-bedroom flats, together with a 37-space car park. New football pitches, two full size and two junior size, as well as a new club house and car parking would be used by Bromley Cross Football Club and the wider community.
The applicant said that up to 40 full-time staff would be employed if the Lidl store was built. A public commuter car park for Bromley Cross railway station are part of the plans. The ‘park and ride’ facility would have 91 spaces and would be at the north eastern corner of the site, fronting Darwen Road.
The applicant said that the car park would ease current on-street parking pressures associated with the railway station. The site is subject to an agreement from 1934 made between Arthur H Ashworth and the Urban District Council of Turton, known as the Birtenshaw Covenant.
This agreement restricts development which can take place on the land and the proposed development would be a breach of the covenant.
Covenants do not affect the granting of a planning permission. However, Bolton Council succeeds the Urban District Council of Turton and is therefore the ‘custodian’ of the Birtenshaw Covenant.
As the development would be a breach of the covenant, a decision on that would need to be made separately by the council’s cabinet. 13 letters of objection have been received, nine of which are from local residents.
Two of the objections are from other supermarkets and one is from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Among the objections are that the proposal is contrary to green belt policy and that a full retail impact assessment should be undertaken and without this it is not possible to understand the impact on designated centres.
Ward councillor Samantha Connor wrote in support of the application, and on behalf of the other two ward councillors. She said that the ward councillors have had numerous complaints of parking problems from residents local to the railway station,
She added that residents on Montrose Drive eventually had to have ‘restricted parking’ times set up and that the parking problems were so bad that residents could not access their own driveways.
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