Wigan rejects Glenbrook’s £70m warehouses
Meridian 6 would have seen 40 acres in Ashton-in-Makerfield redeveloped into a 625,000 sq ft logistics scheme.
On Tuesday, Wigan Council’s planning committee refused Glenbrook’s £70m scheme, which was predicted to create up to 1,200 jobs.
More than 430 letters of objection were sent concerning the project. The objections were largely concerned with the loss of Green Belt and open space.
Most of the development was on land that had been allocated for employment use in Wigan Council’s unitary development plan.
Planning officers had recommended the application for approval, adding that its impact on the openness of the Green Belt was limited and therefore the scheme was compliant with local and national planning policy.
Still, Glenbrook’s Meridian 6 faced dedicated opposition from locals. Wigan’s planning committee voted against officers’ recommendations yesterday.
Cllr Danny Fletcher tweeted “VICTORY!!!!” after the scheme was rejected, adding that this was the goal his campaign group Keep Ashton Green had worked for over 16 months.
VICTORY !!!! 🌳🌳
Unbelievable, today the planning committee in #Wigan rejected Glenbrook’s application to build warehouses over 40 acres of Greenspace
Our campaign group, KEEP ASHTON GREEN, worked tirelessly for 16 months….now we have victory !!! pic.twitter.com/JkAfoPOLji
— Cllr Danny Fletcher – Wigan (@DannyFletcherUK) April 12, 2022
Glenbrook’s proposal mooted several different configurations. For example, as a small number of large units or as several small and medium-sized buildings.
Dan Symonds, development manager at Glenbrook, said the company was “extremely disappointed” by the decision.
“Meridian 6 is an important employment site which is needed in Wigan’s future economic plan,” Symonds said. “Throughout the planning process, we have demonstrated the site meets all planning requirements to allow delivery and we will carefully consider our options and next steps.”
Aew Architects designed the scheme for Glenbrook. Gerald Eve is the planning consultant for the project and SGi Consulting Engineers is the civil and structural engineer.
Do you recall that in the objection speech, we explained that local job offer sites are unable to fill the job offer posts in warehouses in this area already?
Do you really think that giant corporations with mass warehouses on local nature spots, also offering poor pay are really in the best interests of the local families, as opposed to small, local, community businesses?
Not to mention Glenbrooke proposed to bring MORE HGVs to this small town which already has full capacity traffic and is already above the legal limits of pollution?
I really want to believe there is real care for others in you and that as business executives, you just had not contemplated the above or the potential for brownfield as an alternative.
By Linda Kennedy
Green belt development even when it brings jobs is never worth the sacrifice. Brownfield first…I’m sure there are plenty of brownfield sites available with all the businesses and retail parks becoming redundant
By Anonymous