They had permission for a garage but built a house instead - all the key developments across Greater Manchester
A controversial development in Bolton, where a garage was built as a house instead, has led to retrospective planning applications. Meanwhile, major redevelopment plans are underway in Oldham and Chorlton, including the demolition of Oldham’s Civic Centre and Queen Elizabeth Hall for housing, and the transformation of Chorlton Cross shopping centre into flats and shops. Other notable developments include Bury Interchange's temporary entrance, Stockport County's stadium expansion, and a new Lidl store in Audenshaw.
Bolton council officials are weighing whether to let a secret bungalow stand after builders erected a full-size house where they had only permission for a double garage.
The single-storey home appeared in April 2022 inside the grounds of Grade II-listed Ladyshore House on a private road in Little Lever, green-belt land that had been granted consent for garages in 2019. Retrospective papers now admit the “as-built” structure is higher, longer and wider than the approved garage plans, and warn the dwelling must be demolished if councillors refuse to regularise it.
Across Greater Manchester, equally sweeping changes are queued for approval. In Oldham, Muse has asked to bulldoze the brutalist Queen Elizabeth Hall and the adjoining former Civic Centre, replacing them with a six-storey U-shaped block of 93 flats and, in a second phase, up to 745 more apartments rising 11-16 storeys. The same developer hopes to end a decade-long stalemate at nearby Prince’s Gate, Oldham Mumps, with three red-brick towers containing 331 flats on the plot once earmarked for M&S and Lidl.
Chorlton Cross shopping centre could be flattened under plans submitted last week for six residential blocks with more than 250 flats, ground-floor shops and a new “makers’ yard”, while Bury Interchange will be torn down and rebuilt over the next three years; Transport for Greater Manchester has already applied for a temporary staircase from the Angouleme Way underpass to keep the Metrolink running. Stockport County’s bid to add 7,000 seats faces a July 3 verdict after protesters claimed a planned 86-space car park would destroy “valuable” woodland behind the Together Stand. In Salford, Henley Investment Management’s 70-storey, 3,300-home scheme at Regent Retail Park goes before councillors on July 17, and Trafford’s former GMP headquarters—empty since 2011—could be cleared for an “event-only” car park serving Manchester United fans and Victoria Warehouse visitors.
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