A disabled councillor has blasted the design of a planned three-storey apartment block in Urmston which has no lift and only one flight of stairs. The plan has been narrowly approved by Trafford’s planning and development management committee because it complies with national planning policy.
But Labour Coun Shirley Procter, who arrived at the meeting on an electric mobility scooter, said she could not support the application from Branley Estates and Irwell Valley Homes to build 18 affordable apartments on the half-acre site in Bridgenorth Avenue. The plan is to demolish offices known as York House - the headquarters of Branley - before building the block.
“This building won’t have a lift and there is only one flight of stairs [on the plan]. If there was a fire the people on one side of the building would have no way of getting outing out and that deeply concerns me.
“More people become disabled than are born disabled. If you rent a flat on the top floor and you become disabled you are going to have to move.” And she continued: “We need to make a stand. Are we serious about our homes being accessible or not?
“I’m struggling with the concept of something that denies me the right to live where I choose. I wouldn’t live on the ground floor because I’ve done that before and I wouldn’t do it again because you get people knocking on your window wanting to be let in. I’m going to oppose this because of the message this is sending to developers.”
She was supported by Labour colleague Coun Simon Thomas who said disabled people were being ‘discriminated against in terms of access’ and called for the plan to be rejected on grounds of a ‘lack of residential amenity’.
The committee was told by officers that the plan complied with national planning policy and that the delay of the delivery of the Trafford Local Plan - which would lay down regulations over disabled access to building - that refusal of the application would not be viable.
Trafford’s head of planning and development Rebecca Coley said the issue over the flight of stairs would be dealt with under building regulations [ during the development]. “The building must comply with building regulations, and we will expect them to operate properly,” she said.
Liberal Democrat Coun Meena Minnis said she thought it was ‘the right sort of building’ to have on the site and that the committee should accept the proposal.
Conservative Coun Daniel Bunting said plans for the building looked like a ‘Lego kit’. “The application refers to a ‘high-quality beautiful and sustainable building’," he said.
“I think you have to have something of a vision problem to regard it as beautiful. It’s beautiful in the same way as I look like George Clooney. But the fact that it’s ugly isn’t a sufficient reason on its own to refuse it so I’ll go along with the officer’s recommendation [to approve it].”
Green Coun Michael Welton said he thought the plans was ‘sensible’, and alluded to the fact that there were 22 car parking spaces planned for the development. “A third of people in that part of Trafford don’t own a car. By keeping the number of parking spaces in the development down it will be an incentive for people not to own car at all.”
Labour Coun Laurence Walsh agreed with objections over the 'hectic' traffic situation around the site because of parents dropping off and picking children from two nearby schools. And he went on: "But that's a situation in many parts of our borough, and that should not be a reason to turn this application down.
"I'm happy with the application. This is much-needed accommodation in the borough."
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