It was 18 months ago when families on the Moorings Estate in Boothstown blocked builder's wagons on Highclove Lane, sick of the traffic, the noise and the potential danger to their children as houses were constructed on Peel Holdings' greenfield land at the back of their homes (see previous Salford Star article click here).
The residents knew that a further planning application was coming to build more houses on more greenfield land near the estate and organised to oppose it. When Peel Holdings, or Peel Investments (North), submitted that application to build 132 houses they objected in their dozens.
Out of 127 comments received by Salford City Council during the formal consultation on Peel's proposal, only four actually supported the building plans. The other 123 objections ranged from traffic issues to loss of greenfield land, to the lack of infrastructure and the safety of children.
Worsley and Eccles South MP, Barbara Keeley also sent in a letter of objection, as did Residents Against Inappropriate Development, or RAID (which has taken Peel Holdings on in Worsley), the Moorings Estate Residents Society, the Boothstown Residents Association and the three local ward councillors.
The Salford Star understands that the application was due to be heard in January but it was deferred to allow Peel to answer the objections. And during the period since, Peel has been busy trying to neutralise all opposition by lining up support.
First up was a `pre-panel briefing' held behind closed doors in June with members of the Council's Planning Panel. These are the councillors who will eventually make the `impartial' decision on Peel's application.
The Salford Star emailed Salford City Council's Monitoring Officer, Miranda Carruthers-Watt, asking if this was an abuse of the planning process but she is away on leave until after the panel meeting. We asked to speak to someone else who could clear up any possible legal infringements but everyone else appeared to be on leave too. The Council still hasn't returned the call.
Peel, via Lexington Communications PR company, has also been directly lobbying councillors who sit on the planning panel with emails, brochures, positive letters and a DVD purporting to show `demonstrable support' from `the local community'. The DVD includes footage of three people none from Boothstown agreeing with the plans. Local residents are convinced that one of the women featured is an actress.
The Salford Star asked Peel if the company employs the featured woman in any capacity, and whether she got paid for appearing in the video. Peel, as yet, hasn't responded.
Meanwhile, one of the brochures sent to councillors is titled `Community support for delivering family and affordable homes'. Nowhere does Peel state the cost of the new homes. As part of its Section 106 planning obligations, Peel does have to provide 20% affordable homes 75% of which should be for social/affordable rent. But the planning officer's report states that `The applicant has not specified the nature of the affordable homes'...
Peel has agreed to provide on-site and off-site open space and infrastructure mitigations as part of its obligations, together with providing a `commuted sum for education' ; but nowhere is an amount specified. The proposal would also see the loss of category A and B trees, which the Council states is `regrettable', together with the loss of greenfield land.
Despite all this, planning officers are recommending approval for the plans, while Salford Council's Lead Member for Planning, Derek Antrobus is almost tweeting his support, responding to residents' tweets that `we can't cram any more [people] into core of city without outer wards taking fair share'.
Left facing all this are those looking for a transparent, impartial planning process...
"Will Salford residents ever get a fair hearing with respect to Peel planning applications?" asks Boothstown resident Paul Jones "Originally this application was expected to be heard by the planning panel in January 2016. However, due to the large number of objections received, this meeting was deferred to allow Peel time to address them.
"The residents of Boothstown feel that they will not get a fair hearing due to the unprecedented time that has been given to this application by Salford Planning and also the tweets that have been made by Councillor Antrobus expressing that he is in favour of further house building within Boothstown area" he adds.
Should Thursday's planning meeting be called off while checks are made to see whether an abuse of process by Peel has occurred? Possibly. Except it seems that there's no-one around at Salford Council at the moment who is neutral enough to investigate.
The Salford Star also asked Peel if it believed its actions were ethical but the company didn't respond.
* See update 1st September - Salford councillors make formal complain as Peel Holdings application passed - click here
* See also previous Salford Star article: Dance With The Devil - How Peel Holdings tried to influence an election, from print issue 7 in 2008 - click here
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