CAMPAIGNERS ANGRY OVER PLANS TO TEST THE VIABILITY OF BUILDING ON CHAT MOSS

CORE:Independents have accused Salford City Council of blatantly disregarding the wishes of the communities of Irlam and Cadishead, as it has been revealed that Urban Vision have been tasked with undertaking an assessment of ground conditions on land pegged for development of up to 1600 homes on an section of Chat Moss.

However, the position of the Council is that this is all part of the viability assessment process as made clear at a public meeting back in Jan 2019.

In a letter sent to Councillors it would appear that Urban Vision has been tasked with assessing peat depths across the disputed site which includes land close to Irlam Station. The assessment will involve on-site ground investigations, which have apparently been scheduled to take place within the next few weeks.

The work will not actually be carried out by UV themselves but rather by sub-contractors who are as yet to be appointed.

20 window sampled boreholes are set to be drilled on the site to gauge the makeup of the underlying substructure.

Additionally there will be the installation of 10 small gas wells, these would be installed on the site for a period of 12 months to allow for monitoring of ground gases associated with the presence of Peat.

Steps would be put in place to ensure that work on occurs during normal working hours as the drill used for the boreholes can produce 'significant' noise.

The time scale for the ground investigations is said to be two weeks with a further ten weeks factored in for the monitoring, lab testing and reporting of the findings.

The Council says that the work is being carried out after issues were raised by members of the public at a meeting back in Jan 2019, at that meeting council officer Chris Findley explained that investigations on the site would have to take place in order to determine its viability as to whether the site should continue to be allocated in the Greater Manchester Spacial Framework (GMSF).

This action is not just specific to the Chat Moss site but is to be carried our across all site allocations within the GMSF draft in order to determine if they are to be included in the final version. 

If the site is deemed to be unsuitable then it will inevitably be removed in the next draft of the GMSF, however, campaigners say that the site is already deemed unsuitable, citing the irreparable damage that would be done to the local ecology.

Campaigners have gathered together on a number of occasions to participate in nature walks across the moss in an attempt to raise awareness of its bio diversity and importance to the ecology of Salford and beyond. The natural carbon sink acts as a filter by trapping not only carbon but also other toxins in the air.

Campaigners fear that disturbing the peat-lands has the very real potential to not only damage the local ecology but also release carbon that has been locked away within them back into the atmosphere adding to the unprecedented levels already present.

Peat-lands are the superheroes of ecosystems: purifying water, sometimes mitigating flooding and providing a home for rare species. And they beat nearly every system when it comes to carbon storage.

Known peat-lands only cover about 3% of the world’s land surface, but store at least twice as much carbon as all of Earth’s standing forests. In addition, at least one-third of the world’s organic soil carbon, which plays a vital role in mitigating climate change and stabilising the carbon cycle, is in peat-lands.

The view by the campaigners is that Salford is lucky enough to have these areas of land that perform an important role, the message is that we should be protecting them at all costs and not building upon them as once they are gone they are lost forever.

Local campaigner Dave Pike said,

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We are utterly appalled at the blatant disregard that SCC have shown to the communities of Irlam & Cadishead as they continue to look at developing Chat Moss even when faced with so much opposition.

If there wasn’t a desire to develop Chat Moss then there would be no requirement for surveys.

We will now be stepping up our campaign to show the Mayor of Salford, the silent supporting Councillors and the Mayor of GM just how passionate this community feels about protecting Salford’s Lungs!

We cannot standby and watch the destruction of countless species of Wildlife and a development that will reek havoc on Irlam & Cadishead for the next 20/25 years.

Please show your support by sharing this post and joining with us to condemn this work!

Core recently upset the apple cart at the local elections after their candidate in Irlam, Darren Goulden, stormed past the finish line with a majority of 125 whilst fellow Candidate Dave Pike finished a strong second in neighbouring Cadishead missing out on taking the seat by 64 votes.

For a full breakdown of electoral voting across the City see here: https://salford.media/elections/local2019 

The independents have vowed to step up their campaigning in order to show just how passionate the local community feels about protecting Salford's Green Lungs.

Dave went on to say,

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We can not stand by and watch the destruction of countless species of Wildlife and a development which will reek havoc on both Irlam and Cadishead for the next 20/25 years.

Newly elected Cadishead Councillor, Lewis Nelson, has vowed to continue to pledge his support in protecting the Mosslands at every stage of the GMSF consultation, a keen environmentalist himself, he was one of the first to arrive and join in the protests at neighbouring Barton Moss when it was under threat from iGas who had designs on hydraulic gas fracturing (Fracking).

Cadishead Councillor Lewis Nelson told us,

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"I am still angry and upset that Chat Moss was put forward in the first place.

"I completely understand why residents are angry now land viability assessments are taking place, I have my fingers crossed that the moss is economically nonviable for housing.

"Whatever the outcome, our community stands ready to defend our moss from destruction."

We have printed the contents of the letter in its entirety below.

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Dear Councillor,

As you will be aware, the Revised Draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) was published for consultation in January 2019 (at the same time as the Salford Revised Draft Local Plan).

The GMSF proposes to allocate four sites outside of Salford’s urban area for housing and employment development, including GM allocation 32 Land North of Irlam Station, which is proposed to be allocated for 1,600 dwellings.

The city council is aware that this site is likely to have significant depths of peat across parts of it, however data on this is currently limited. Representations made to the Revised Draft GMSF expressed concerns about the ground conditions on the site and suggested that this would impact on development viability. This issue was also raised by the local community at the public meeting held in Irlam and Cadishead in January 2019, and council officers explained that site investigations would be required to understand this further.

The city council has recently appointed Urban Vision to undertake an assessment of the ground conditions, in order to provide an indication of peat depths across the site. The assessment will involve on-site ground investigations, which will take place during the coming weeks. The works will be undertaken by a sub-contractor appointed by Urban Vision and will comprise:

20 window sampled boreholes. The samples are taken using a relatively small rig that is less than 1m wide, has its own tracks and can be manoeuvred relatively easily within a site. This produces quite significant noise, roughly about the level of roadworks. Activity would be restricted to normal working hours to minimise potential nuisance.
The installation of 10 gas wells. These wells would be installed on the site for a period of at least 12 months to allow for monitoring of ground gas associated with the presence of peat.

Discussions will take place with the landowners to agree the location and timing of the ground investigations, to ensure that any disruption is minimised as far as possible.

It is expected that it will take two weeks to undertake the ground investigations, and a further 10 weeks for lab testing, monitoring and reporting.

The assessment will help the city council to identify any particularly problematic parts of the site and better understand the practical issues associated with its development, in order to determine whether the site should continue to be allocated in the GMSF.