Meeting local housing need within a greenbelt village

This development is located within the settlement boundary of Bickershaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.

The site lies in a ‘washed over’ green belt village. However, being a small infill site, it had very low ecological value, contributing little to the function and quality of the greenbelt.

On this basis, we considered it an appropriate and sustainable site to deliver high quality affordable housing, an argument that the local planning authority agreed with.

No new affordable housing has been delivered in this former mining village for many decades and Wigan Council had identified significant demand.

We used our technical expertise to bring forward a development of sensitively designed houses and cottage flats, ultimately being owned by Jigsaw Homes Group to meet local need.