COUNCILLORS have approved plans for housing on land formerly home to Wilderspool Stadium.

An outline application for up to 160 homes on the land, on Fletcher Street, came before the development management committee at its meeting on Thursday.

As recommended, it was approved subject to conditions.

Furthermore, in the event that the Section 106 legal agreement remains unsigned six months after this resolution, the application will be reviewed by the development manager and if ‘no meaningful progress’ is being made to sign an agreed Section 106 agreement then delegated authority is given to the development manager to refuse the application in the absence of an agreed Section 106 agreement, without which the development will be ‘unacceptable in planning terms’.

Committee member Cllr Judith Wheeler said the pedestrian access around Brian Bevan Island into the town centre is ‘very good’.

“There are enough crossings, there are enough dropped kerbs,” she added.

“What I do have an issue with, and I’ve always had an issue with, is the access down Priory Street and Fletcher Street.

“Fletcher Street is terraced houses, double parked, very tight to get down, Priority Street is slightly better, but again it’s a narrow road, so you’ve got an awful lot of traffic accessing a high-density development, and the only egress and access is Fletcher and Priority Street.

“You then go out onto Wilderspool Causeway, which is the A49, we know how busy that gets.”

“And if you are exiting either Priory Street or Fletcher Street and turning right, you are virtually turning right onto Brian Bevan Island hoping somebody will let you into the traffic, on both sides of the road, to your left and to your right.

“I really struggle to see how that will work. I also think there is a significant impact for the residents of Fletcher Street.”

She was told it is envisaged that ‘if these were to remain as the main points of access, it is likely that we would look to enforce a one-way system’ – with one being ‘formalised’ as one-way in, and one being ‘formalised’ as one-way out, ‘looped via the new development’.

Furthermore, she was told that this is intended as one of the developments of the Southern Gateway, the ‘intention of which’ is also to provide an access to an ‘improved’ Brian Bevan Island, so that there ‘should be another access point coming in’, at a point in the future.