1:14pm Sunday 4th October 2009
By Catherine Pye
work on an ‘eyesore’ former mill site in Hoddlesden could eventually begin in the new year.
Local residents have been asking for something to be done with the former Vernon Carus site, off Johnson New Road, for more than two years.
There has been added urgency since the building was wrecked by fire last November, and then demolished.
East Rural councillor Julie Slater demanded McInerney homes, which owns the land, do something before it attracted thieves looking for stone.
Now the company is set to go ahead with building homes if planning permission is grant-ed, and sales are expected to start in early spring. It is thought there will be about 80 homes of different styles and prices built on the site.
In January 2008, McInerney Homes said a sheltered housing section was to be named in honour of the late Coun Fred Slater, whose dream it was for the site to be used in that way.
Stephen Grant, sales and marketing director for McIner-ney Homes North West, said: “We are planning on submitting a new application by the end of October, following work with the local planning office to design a collection of new homes that best suits the needs of the local market and the development’s wonderful surrounds.
“It’s a really exciting opport-unity to create something very special and we’re looking for-ward to starting work once planning has been agreed.”
Coun Slater said: “I’m trying to arrange a public consultation with the builders for October 13, so that they know what the community wants.
“There’ll be no more building in Hoddlesden after this, so we need to get it right. It’s an eyesore and people want to see something done now. Busi-nesses would like it too because it would help them.
“There will be a mix of housing – some terrace types, some detached, some sheltered accomodation – and it would be good to keep local families together.”
The mill was formed in 1971 by the merger of Hoddlesden-based Alexander Carus & Sons and Vernon & Co. In 1993, the firm closed its Hampden Mill site, Darwen, and 10 years later revealed it was also to close its Hoddlesden site.
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