THE public’s opinion is being sought on plans to completely renovate the derelict Bailey Mill site on Oldham Road in Delph.
The site, currently owned by R Gledhill & Sons, has been reimagined by teams from Townscape: Chartered Town Planning & Heritage Consultants Ltd and architects Nicol Thomas, who were behind the design for the award-winning development at St Mary’s in Oldham.
They are calling on the community to give their view on the plans before a planning application is submitted to Oldham Council.
The proposed development will transform the brownfield site from its current dilapidated state, creating 60 new dwellings.
Due to infrastructure concerns, specialist reports have been commissioned to assess the situation regarding drainage, flood risk, contaminated land and transport.
Certain buildings on the site date back to 1863, when the mill was built, and currently hold Grade II Listed status.
The proposed development has taken this into account and will seek to retain and make use of any buildings which remain sound, while demolishing unsafe structures, replacing them with new buildings which reference the history of the site, and using materials sympathetic to the site and wider area.
The mill’s iconic chimney will remain as a centre point in the plans.
Also due an upgrade is the Delph Donkey route, which currently ends awkwardly as you approach the mill site. This route will be reinstated as part of the development.
The initial consultation period is set to run for six weeks from Monday, June 20 and public opinion is sought via the development’s website: https://baileymill.info
Once this consultation period has ended, a planning application will be submitted to Oldham Council in the autumn of 2022, with the hope that a decision will be reached by early spring 2023.
What is not clear, is whether the building material is actually reclaimed stone, composite stone (regular blocks of material ‘dressed’ to look like stone), or freshly queried stone. If it is freshly queried, why not name the quarry to clarify where it actually comes from? Local slate? Unless this development is going to have Millstone Grit, roofing flags, then slates are not ‘local’ and are more likely to come from North Wales or further afield (China!). Detailed clarification is required, rather than a vague appellation of ‘local materials’.
Already the Gatehead Business Park, has insufficient parking to accommodate vehicles, which are often left on the corner of Delph New Road, often parked partially on the footpath. Will each unit/dwelling have at least two parking spaces and an say 1:3 visitors car parking, which will be limited to 12 hours and require a residents permit (to be handed out to legitimate visitors) to prevent casual parking?