Rochdale approves Green Belt industrial
Birch Industrial Estate owner Yeargate can move forward with plans to demolish two warehouses, replacing them with a single 87,800 sq ft unit for data management firm Restore.
Rochdale Council signed off the application at its planning and licensing committee meeting last week.
Birch Industrial Estate is a developed site within Green Belt, which would make the building of Restore’s new base inappropriate development. However, planning officers and the council agreed that the economic benefits of the project would outweigh the harm to the Green Belt since the site was previously developed land.
The two soon-to-be-demolished warehouses are Units B and G at Birch Business Park and sit near the M62. Combined the two units are 48,800 sq ft, meaning the approved application would see the amount of industrial space on the site nearly double.
WSP was the planner for the project, which was designed by architect Fletcher Rae. Other project team members include Reddish Demolition, Urban Wilderness, Ridge, and Warrington Martin.
The application’s reference number is 22/01148/FUL.
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Selling off green belt in the first place was ,in my opinion, wrong. Councils should protect and guard Green Belt vigorously . Wildlife benefits and people benefit more from green spaces than bricks and mortar. There has always been areas of brown field plus old derelict Mills in the area which could’ve been and should’ve been prioritised. Green belt should never be sold off or given over for development and profit.
By Anonymous
A bad decision..
By Bob