Government pressure to build houses on brown field sites is being used as an excuse by builders to over develop parts of Hale, which will eventually destroy the character of the area.

There have been numerous letters in SAM regarding the proposed development in the Clarence Road area, which will spoil the outlook of many houses.

But I believe there is an even more disastrous development being proposed by Linden Homes on the site of the Wellgreen Hotel on Grove Lane.

The present large building is set well back from the road and only a single storey building is on the frontage to Grove Lane, which is higher than the road level.

But Linden Homes are proposing to build 28 flats and 10 terraced houses in a monstrous block which is three stories high fronting onto Grove Lane, even further forward than the existing single storey off licence building.

The visual impact of this will be an environmental disaster for the area and will completely destroy the present open aspect of Grove Lane, which has single storey buildings on either side of the proposed development.

Linden Homes should at least be asked to think again and employ an architect who has some sympathy with the surrounding area and is not purely concerned with maximising the profit the company can get from the site.

Grove Lane Resident (name and address supplied).

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.