NEW homes will be built on part of a site initially designated as a Business Employment Area in Dukinfield – only if the developer pays more than £30,000 for a series of improvements, including to a park and the town’s cemetery.
BAK Civil Engineering was granted permission to construct 19 homes on currently vacant land at the junction of Sandy Lane and Park Road.
However, if they do not pay £15,170 for work on nearby Tower Street Park and Dukinfield Cemetery, nor highway improvements around the site, work will not start.
A minimum of 15 per cent of the homes must also be affordable housing.
Tameside Council’s speakers’ panel (planning) committee heard on Wednesday, July 21 homes are wanted on part of the Business Employment Area as, ‘the benefits associated with the residential development of the site outweigh the loss of part of the Business Employment Area.
‘In this case, it would significantly improve the environmental quality of this particular location’.
Meanwhile, a Mossley footpath also looks set to be diverted after the panel agreed to take a proposal to the next stage.
The path, from Midge Hill to Stockport Road, will see stiles at either end replaced by gates and the applicant will pay for everything, other than the kits for the gates themselves.
The picture and title are both incorrect: it shows the site locally known as the Sandhills which fills the gap between Prospect Road and Sandy Grove in Dukinfield. You can see Cemetery wall by the Pantomime Steps top right. The site where the new housing development is to be built is on the triangle of land in what used to be part of the old SHMD tram depot (more recently Back and Pollitzer) that is bounded by Sandy Lane to the west and Park Road to the north. It is actually in Stalybridge NOT Dukinfield.
The Sandhills site was also sold for housing back in March 2021.
I wonder if the people at Tameside MBC have short memories though? The Sandhills site was earmarked for housing in the 1970s and two attempts were made to build on it. The first one even got as far as putting down some foundations, the second was fought off by local residents in the 1980s. The land was found to be unstable and unsuitable for anything, and I doubt things have changed much in 40 years, indeed the foundations can probably still be seen just above Sandy Grove.
As the new site forms part of the same geological patten (where do you think the name Sandy Lane comes from?), I wonder if Caveat Emptor applies to potential buyers here?