Plans for the UK’s biggest urban farm and eco-park in Oldham which bosses hope will attract 100,000 visitors a year are set to be decided next week.
Officers are recommending approval for the first major phase of the Northern Roots project, which focuses on the top half of the 160-acre site in Snipe Clough.
It will include a visitor centre, with spaces for events and meetings and a café and shop, a natural amphitheatre and performance space as well as a learning centre, forestry depot and solar panels. The application also includes outline proposals for a natural swimming pond and a community growing allotment.
Produce from the proposed market garden would be sold in the shop and the cafe in the visitor centre. A massive 880 solar panels will be used to provide electricity for the buildings across the Northern Roots site.
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Documents say the developments could cater to events such as outdoor performances, weddings, festivals and workshops. Councillors will vote on whether to approve the plans at a meeting of Oldham’s planning committee on Wednesday night.
The whole site runs from the Grade Two listed Alexandra Park, past Park Bridge and down to Daisy Nook country park. Two existing football pitches on the site are due to be retained and upgraded, while two are planned to be relocated onto a new plot in the north east.
A car park will be created on Nether Hey Street, and there are a number of cycling and walking route improvements proposed, but no new roads are planned.
However residents and Councillors Shaid Mushtaq, Zahid Chauhan and Jenny Harrison have objected to the plans over the proposal to create a car park on Nether Hey Street. They say that it would take away a ‘well used open space’ and result in more traffic problems in a congested area that already has issues with on-street parking.
Three letters of support have been received for the proposals.
In his report, planning officer Graham Dickman states that the visitor centre, although more ‘prominent’ than other buildings on the site, has been ‘sensitively designed to blend with the surrounding natural environment’ and would be nestled into the woodland edge.
He adds the Northern Roots project will occupy a ‘a significantly underutilised asset’ in the town, within an area of ‘acute and sustained inner-urban multiple deprivation’.
“The benefits of the Northern Roots project are extensive, with the vision to be the UK’s largest urban farm and eco-park delivering much-needed greenspace for residents and visitors to access leisure, learning and recreational facilities as well as representing a visitor attraction with regional and national significance,” Mr Dickman writes.
He concludes the proposals have the potential to ‘generate momentum for the revitalisation of the town’, and consequently represent very special circumstances which outweigh harm to the green belt.
It is anticipated that the project will support 80 jobs in ‘various’ businesses and roles across the site, and would create 150 volunteering placements a year as well as 28 traineeships and apprenticeships.
The scheme is being partly funded by Oldham council’s successful £24.4 million Towns Fund bid. It has also received £1m from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to create a new charity.
And Northern Roots has been given nearly £600k from the Community Renewal Fund to deliver a six month pilot project helping young people in the borough into employment.
It is estimated that Northern Roots could attract 100,000 visitors a year by 2026.
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