Hulton Park: Bolton Council payout 'provisionally agreed'

Last month, the Bolton News reported that the figure was expected to come to more than £400,000, after the £240million Hulton Park project was given the go-ahead by government planning inspectorate last year, overruling the council planning committee’s decision to reject the scheme.

Now, the provisionally agreed figure has been confirmed as more than £460,000 following negotiations between the council and developers Peel L&P.

Costs could have been a lot higher if negotiations had not been held.

A Bolton Council report said: “The Appellant provided a schedule of their costs to the Council which officers, with the benefit of counsel advice, have analysed.

The plans also include more than 1,000 houses (Image: Peel L&P)

“Officers have provisionally agreed the sum of £467,746.61 following negotiations with the appellant.

“It is now considered that all the items claimed within the schedule are substantiated and that the council should agree to pay the same.”

The money will come from the authority’s corporate reserves and had been negotiated down from a figure originally believed to have been around £700,000.

Development company Peel L&P launched an appeal against the planning committee’s decision to reject their plans to build a luxury golf course with more than 1,000 houses in Over Hulton last year.

The plan had long been a cause of controversy, with opposition campaigners claiming that it could have a damaging impact on wildlife and the environment as well as causing congestion on the roads.

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But following a two-day hearing in October 2021, the UK Planning Inspectorate decided not only to overrule Bolton Council and give the development the greenlight, but also that the authority should have to pay for the costs of the appeal itself.

This was even though Peel L&P themselves had not sought for these costs to be paid.

A scathing report by inspector Dominic Young described the planning committee’s original decision as “unreasonable, irrational and injudicious to the extent that no reasonable authority would have made it."

Bolton Council’s cabinet is not set to meet on Monday July 10 with officers having recommended that they agree to pay the costs as provisionally agreed.