The Save Samlesbury Action Group is urging residents to attend a vote to oppose plans for a huge new housing and employment development on over 400 acres of green belt.

The Cuerdale Garden Village proposal from Story Homes includes 1,300 homes, a primary school, leisure facilities, a local shopping centre and employment space.

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Story says the development will respond to opportunities provided by the Samlesbury Enterprise Zone and the new National Cyber Force campus.

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The first phase of the 408-acre South Ribble development would run along the A59 Preston New Road to the east of the M6. Story says the Garden Village could expand in future to include land to the north of the A59.

While Story doesn’t yet own the land, the developer has an ‘option agreement’ with a single landowner for the entire site.

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A consultation with residents ran for three weeks in February, with the next stage being for Story Homes to submit an outline planning application to South Ribble Borough Council.

The newly-created Save Samlesbury Action Group is now campaigning to prevent what it says is an ‘enormous and inappropriate development’ that would ‘obliterate the green belt separation between Preston and Blackburn, and swamp the existing community’.

Ahead of the application from Story, residents of Samlesbury and Cuerdale Parish are being encouraged to vote against the development, with one vote being given to each person rather than each address.

The Parish Council has organised a parish poll to take place on Thursday (7 April) between 4pm and 9pm at the Samlesbury War Memorial Hall in Cuerdale Lane.

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Chair of the Save Samlesbury Action Group Jasmine Gleave said: “The land is over 400 acres – like 200 full-sized football pitches – of green belt which would be lost and destroyed forever.

“The proposal would see our tiny village of under 1,300 people grow in size by at least three or four times in phase one, where 1,300 houses would be added, and even more in phase two.

“The traffic increase would be a disaster, there would be a massive strain on healthcare provisions, and there would be job losses across the rural community. The plans could result in the closure of the fantastic small village school that has been educating local children since 1832.

“There is no benefit to existing residents, only harm. Development should never be at the expense of existing businesses, livelihoods and way of life.

“We hope a strong vote will send a message to the South Ribble Borough Council, the government, and developers looking to speculate on green belt land in Samlesbury.

“It is a threat to everything we hold dear.”

The Save Samlesbury Action Group is on Facebook. More information on the development can be found via the Cuerdale Garden Village website.

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