A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build almost 80 new homes on a greenfield site in Dalton looks set to be rejected.

Barrow Borough Council has received an application to construct the houses on land off the corner of Newton Road and Long Lane in Dalton.


Dalton residents who are angry over the building of new properties on greenfield land near Long Lane and Newton Road. JON GRANGER More than 30 households have written to the council to object to the proposed development – raising concerns over issues including access, traffic and safety, loss of green land, and flooding.

The application will go before the council’s planning committee, which will meet in Barrow Town Hall on Tuesday afternoon.

Planning officer Charles Wilton has recommended to the 12 councillors on the committee that they reject it.

In his report, Mr Wilton said the site is recognised as having “an important open and rural character”.

He added: “The development, as proposed, would be particularly damaging given the scale and density involved, which would result in a hard edge to the adjacent highways on a key approach to Dalton.”

Mr Wilton said the homes would also lessen the “sense of separation” between Dalton and Barrow and worsen flooding issues in the area.

The application, submitted by a Mr D Barnes, of Blackburn, said the site would be accessed directly off a “new improved access” road on to Newton Road.

It added: “This site is readily available and deliverable and would sit seamlessly into the surrounding area, and would merely become an extension of what is already there.

“Given that the scheme has yet to be designed fully, and is merely at a outline stage and yet to be developed further with regards to the number of units etc, the site benefits far outweigh those against it and therefore should be supported completely.”

Numerous letters submitted to the council have objected strongly to the plans.

One, from a resident in Barnes Avenue, said: “It would be criminally insane to permit any housing development to be built at a crossroads where cars and lorries from each direction may be travelling at speeds well in excess of 40mph, and where there have been numerous traffic accidents over the years.”