INTERVIEW: Residents step up campaign against new homes on Green Belt near A6

Residents worried about the future of two villages have handed a petition to Lancaster City Council against plans to build up to 200 houses in fields near the A6.

A group from 'The Friends of Lapwing Fields' packed into the public gallery at Morecambe Town Hall on Wednesday.

They said they are worried the proposed housing on land next to Slyne Road could lead to Slyne-with-Hest and Bolton-le-Sands losing their identities, and a loss of green space.

An outline planning application for the scheme has been submitted to Lancaster City Council.

This is to build "up to 200 dwellings, including affordable housing, public open space, landscaping, and sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) and associated works".

A statement on behalf of the developer said "the development of the site would not comprise inappropriate development in the Green Belt".

Beyond Radio spoke to Glenn Fothergill, from the Friends of Lapwing Fields, who said "the two villages really want to stay independent".

LISTEN to Glenn Fothergill speaking outside Morecambe Town Hall on Wednesday

"We don't want this development spreading," said Mr Fothergill (below).

"There are lots of concerns. We have letters from both Hest Bank and Bolton-le-Sands Primary Schools, saying we cannot cope with another 200 properties in the villages. There's not enough spaces in the schools.

"There is lots of wildlife in there, the lapwings that we've named our group after, are a protected species. They are nesting in the field that runs along the A6.

"Green space and the wellbeing of being able to have green space around our villages is a big plus, that we would lose.

"We've got over 1,000 signatures, a mix of both paper signatures in the local stores, businesses and electronic signatures through the Facebook groups.

"It's gone wider than just people that it would immediately impact.

"It would be really detrimental, a five-year project, a building site for five years that would affect all our children in the local area. Construction vehicles going in and out.

"There are lots of other areas that can be built on."

A statement submitted to the council on behalf of the developer said: "The site, measuring 11.3 hectares, comprises three fields and part of a fourth field, all in active agricultural use, on land to the west of the A6 Slyne Road.

Below, the land near the A6.

"The site is bounded by Slyne Road to the east, agricultural land to the south being promoted by Story Homes and Bryn Grove, residential development to the west (off The Paddocks, Kirklands, and Hatlex Hill).

"To the north the site is bounded by a post and wire fence inside an existing hedgerow, the remainder of the northern agricultural field (presently an open boundary), and properties on Pinewood Avenue and Greenwood Drive.

"Existing access to the site is via field gates on Slyne Road (adjacent to which there is a Grade II listed mile marker), Greenwood Drive and Hatlex Hill.

"A consultation exercise was completed in May and June 2025, proposing a development of up to 250 homes. The SCI records that the public consultation undertaken was highly effective, eliciting almost 300 responses in the two-week consultation period.

"As a direct consequence of the pre-application consultation exercise, the proposal has been reduced from 250 homes to 200 homes, with a greater proportion of public open space being provided on site."

The statement says up to 90 (45 per cent) of any new houses will be affordable homes.

It also proposes new vehicular access off the A6 Slyne Road by way of a priority junction and new ghost island right turn, with Greenwood Drive as secondary emergency vehicle access; pedestrian and cycle links to Slyne Road, Greenwood Road and Hatlex Hill, and significant areas of "public open space, amenity space and blue infrastructure" including "new structure landscaping including trees and vegetation to create attractive informal public open spaces and street scenes", children's play areas, walking paths and "retention and enhancement of natural habitat around the existing hedgerow areas".

"The proposals are based on sound design principles that have taken into account site constraints and opportunities presented by the site," it says.

"Consideration has been given to achieving a sensitive integration between the proposed development and the existing settlement.

"The housing mix will reflect the accommodation needs of different people, families and ages."

It also says "the development could create a high quality and pleasant residential environment, that will be a desirable place to live" and "proposals will deliver transport infrastructure including highways and pedestrian networks throughout the scheme thus delivering a development with good accessibility to local services and facilities in Bolton-le-Sands, and adjacent neighbouring villages of Hest Bank and Slyne".

"It is likely that, subject to market conditions, on average around 40 market dwellings would be completed per annum," it says.

The report also says "the development of the site would not comprise inappropriate development in the Green Belt".

"The site lies on the edge of Bolton-le-Sands, which is a Sustainable Rural Settlement, but it also adjoins Hest Bank which itself is contiguous with Slyne," it says.

"The scale of development proposed would therefore not be disproportionate to the scale of the three conjoined settlements, and it could be readily assimilated into the landscape and local urban form.

"The development will contribute towards meeting pressing housing needs and addressing a chronic shortage of both market and affordable homes."

The applicant is Warren Cadman of Wrenman Strategic Land. Mr Cadman said he did not wish to comment at this time.

The petition against the plans was received and noted by Lancaster City Council at their meeting on Wednesday.

Below, the public gallery at Morecambe Town Hall on the evening of July 23.

As the petition had more than 500 signatures, it could be presented to the full council for debate.

The petition said: "We the undersigned support the campaign both to preserve the green belt status of land (land between Manor Lane, Slyne-with-Hest and Greenwood Drive/Avenue and Pinewood Avenue/Crescent, Bolton-le-Sands), and to object to its use for development.

"We the undersigned petition the council to retain the green belt status of the land between Slyne-with-Hest and Bolton-le-Sands and to reject proposals to build there. We ask that District housing targets are met by using more appropriate and sustainable locations. We would like our petition presented and debated by full council and to be offered an opportunity to present our issue to full council.

"The residents of Slyne with Hest and Bolton-le-Sands are passionate and proud of their villages. Each village has a distinct community and gives its residents a strong sense of place.

"The retention of the green belt that has so effectively prevented the villages from merging and forming what would be essentially a town larger in population than Carnforth, is absolutely essential.

"Both communities strongly opposed development of their green belt in the creation of the last Local Plan and opinions remain just as strong today.

"We wish to retain our local green belt to ensure that the historic villages of Slyne-with- Hest and Bolton-le-Sands can continue to exist independently. We wish to safeguard the land for its wildlife, its beautiful views, its capacity to mitigate flooding and to retain our District’s history.

"To release this land for development would result in the urban sprawl of Lancaster marching forward virtually unchecked to Carnforth swallowing villages that the north Lancaster green belt was created to preserve. Only 3 per cent of our District is designated as green belt. We do not need to sacrifice this small percentage for development. Developing our stunning piece of local green belt will not produce the truly affordable homes the District needs.

"We should be true to our District’s slogan ‘Promoting City, Coast and Countryside.’ Development of our green belt would be in stark contradiction to this."

Councillor Sue Tyldesley (below), cabinet member with special responsibility for planning, proposed that councillors note the petition but said that "it would be inappropriate for council to articulate a view".

She said this was because the planning application will be determined separately by the council's planning and regulatory committee, in due course.

This proposal was agreed, when put to a vote of councillors.

The land is identified in Lancaster City Council's Local Plan - which informs planning policy for the Lancaster and Morecambe District.

It is designated as being in "the North Lancashire Green Belt (Policy EN4) and Open Countryside (Policy EN3)".

The council is facing a major shortage of new housing in the District.

"There is a shortfall on the five-year housing supply needed to meet the housing requirement established by the adopted Local Plan." said a Lancaster City Council spokesperson, in May.

"The total current five-year housing requirement figure is 4,372 new homes, however, the housing supply that the council can demonstrate over the next five years is presently 1,728 homes.

"The council can therefore demonstrate the equivalent of two years of housing supply. 

"This Housing Land Supply position is updated and published at least once a year; an update is likely to be published in the summer."

The planning application and supporting documents can be found at lancaster.gov.uk in the Planning section - reference number 25/00805/OUT.

* A joint public consultation meeting of Slyne-with-Hest and Bolton-le-Sands parish councils will be held at Bolton-le-Sands Community Centre on Tuesday July 29 at 7.30pm. This is open to the public.

Read more: Campaign group forms against plans for hundreds of new homes on Green Belt land near A6 - Beyond Radio

Plans revealed to build 260 new homes near A6 at Bolton-le-Sands - Beyond Radio