I WOULD like to enter the debate about the green belt around our towns being abolished and reclassified as brown belt.

This classification is usually reserved for ex-industrial sites and does not seem to fit in with, for instance, an area of Leigh which contains community assets like Leigh RUFC.

This is a cheap win by Wigan Council as the extra houses bring forward the prospect of the sound of ‘kerching’ into the coffers through the collection of extra council tax, in spite of it already rising by three per cent.

There is no local benefit with these expansions.

It does not include any community assets like schools, workplaces, trunk roads and recreation areas and is limited to what the developer agrees to supply in order to obtain planning permission.

In fact some areas like Plank Lane that once had three more pubs, an infant and primary school and various foundries, shops, places of work and of course Bickershaw Colliery are being merrily repopulated minus those facilities, meaning people will have to clog the roads into Leigh and Lowton to get to a decent place of work.

It just seems to be about giving builders free rein over green belt spaces, which I believe are being re-classified at the behest of a minority.

A further point on this is that places like Parr Bridge in Tyldesley and the Barr’s Soft Drinks site in Atherton, which each provided employment and sponsorship in their day, are being removed as industrial providers and the land given over to house building.

Turning to nature, along the Atherleigh bypass you can clearly see birds of prey resting on the top of some of the lamp posts.

These birds clearly hunt small mammals in surrounding green belt land, such as the Landside area of Leigh.

This area is now being re-classified as building land.

Can the council reassure us these precious birds and habitat will not be affected by the building that will follow?

It also makes a mockery of the council’s policy to have classified or accepted classification of these areas as green belt only then to change that classification for the expediency of house developers.

Like the old song it seems to be a case of ‘anything goes’.

The future HS2 will also provide no advantage for this area but will provide an outward link for Wigan, courtesy of Leigh and Lowton and council planners.

There will be no access here but we will be able to watch the trains speed by while we sit in our cars in the traffic jams.

Lastly there are numerous health reports and warnings about the proliferation of respiratory conditions as well as asthma and hay fever.

These are all being put down to the fumes ejected from standing traffic, slow traffic and just traffic in general.

This is already a problem in this area as people are being forced to earn a decent living by commuting to work.

It is clear to see now that the roads around here are overused in the morning by people who have to get to work.

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