Coach house plan drop-in session

9:23am Thursday 26th July 2012 in Your Town

Smithills residents will have the opportunity to meet the people who want to develop the historic Smithills Coaching house into 29 houses.

A public drop-in meeting will be held at the grade II-listed building next week.

Smithills Coaching House will cease operating as a restaurant on August 27, after 46 years, making its 30 staff redundant .

The Emmerson Group will host the drop-in meeting, between 2pm and 7pm, on Friday, Aug-ust 3.

Smithills ward councillors will then host a public meeting, at 7.30pm, at Smithills Sports Centre, in Smithills Dean Road, for residents to share their views.

It comes just weeks after the group submitted an application to demolish part of the building to create eight homes .

Under the plans, another 21 homes, with parking and landscaping, would be built on the surrounding land. After an ang- ry reaction from residents to the plans, ward councillors liaised with the
developers to organise a meeting.

There will be coloured drawings on display at the meeting for residents to see the impact of the buildings on the listed building, and the green belt.

Planner Graham Bee and Joe Savage, the regional director of Jones Homes, will be at the meeting, along with Peter De Figueiredo, a heritage consultant, and John Hardy, from The Emmerson Group’s
land depar- tment, as well as officers from Bolton Council ’s planning dep-artment and ward councillors.

Cllr Carole Swarbrick is urging residents to attend the drop-in session to find out more about the application.

She said: “We have received a lot of inquiries and people are very concerned about the bridleway, and the green belt.

“It is an opportunity for people to go along and speak to the developers, and the planners, and learn about the planning process.”

Eight letters objecting to the plans have been received by Bolton Council .

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