Hundreds more houses coming to Bowland's Hey

Concrete jungle: The Bowlands Hey masterplan

The house builder Bellway has had its planning appeals for hundreds more houses on the west side of Westhoughton approved by the government inspector.

The developments at Bowlands Hey will stretch up to the Bolton to Wigan railway.

There will be no extra school places or doctors facilities.

All the traffic from phases 3, 4 and 5, and from phase 2 which is under construction, will use the Wigan Rd / The Fairways junction.

Westhoughton South councillor David Wilkinson said: “Thanks to the Tory government saying that Bolton has to have a 5 year supply of land, which is 760 houses per year, the Government planning inspectors keep pushing these applications through.

“A good question to ask is, which political party received £11 million in donations from property developers?”

All five phases of the housebuilder’s nearly 600-home Bowlands Hey project have now been pushed through by the Planning Inspectorate.

The first phase of the project, comprising 129 homes, was rejected in 2017 by Bolton Council, only to be approved at an appeal later that year.

Bellway’s second phase, consisting of 167 houses, won an appeal in 2020.

Now two appeals have overturned the council’s March 2022 rejections for phases three, four, and five.

The first of the appeals was for phases three and four, which consist of 119 homes. The second was for the 183-home phase five.

You can read more information on the Place North West website.