If anyone has any doubts that Hadfield is doomed and Oldham & the Highways Agency want a motorway through Longdendale, all they need to do is go to High Peak Borough Council's planning website.
There they will find a planning application (full plans can be downloaded) for a 40-bed Hotel, alongside the point the Glossop Spur is supposed to join the A57. The Hotel will have 120 car parking spaces and measure 1525 square meters in floorspace. It will have 15 employees, and feature a bar and restaurant (both separate, i.e. like a Little Chef or Burger King at Travelodge hotels), and will be open 24 hours a day.
Sound familiar? If you've every visited a Travelodge or similar hotel, this fits the description. And why build such a place? Well, you find them at the end of motorways or alongside major dual carriageways or similarly very busy roads.
What's surprising is that outline planning permission was granted in 1999, and renewed in 2004. The current plan has been under 'consultation' since 6th July this year, and it expires tomorrow, 27th July.
You can object here ('comment on this application' button). Sorry, make that you should if you care about the area and live in and around Hadfield and don't want it to turn into a disaster area. Schemes like this and Rossington Park need to be stopped and/or strangled. If you think the Bypass and Spur are really about alleviating traffic and you know about plans like these (which suggest anything but good intentions), you are dreaming...
Incidentally, the Company proposing the development, Shepherd Developments, belong to the Shepherd Group, who describe themselves as one of the "largest privately owned group(s) in the European building sector". A subsidiary company is Portakabin, no less. No small fish then, in fact a big fish looking for a big pond. To pollute...
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