Bury has until 3 September to comment on the environmental study for 1,550 homes at Simister and Bowlee. Nine objections are lodged. What is being decided.

The developers behind the 1,550-home Simister Bowlee scheme have taken the first formal step towards a planning application. Bury Council validated an environmental scoping request for the site on 10 August 2026, under reference 73525.

Nine public comments have been lodged so far. All nine are objections, and none support the scheme. Eight arrived on 19 August and one on 17 August.

Comments close on Thursday 3 September. The council has set itself a target of Monday 14 September to issue its opinion, and the decision will be taken by officers under delegated powers rather than by a committee.

What is actually being decided, and what is not

This is not a planning application, and nobody is being asked yet whether 1,550 homes should be built. The request is for a scoping opinion under Regulation 15 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017.

In plain terms, the applicant is asking Bury Council one question: what must our environmental study cover?

The answer matters more than it sounds. Whatever the council agrees to “scope in” has to be assessed in the Environmental Statement that will accompany the real outline application. What is scoped out does not. The scoping report lodged with the council proposes full assessment of:

  • landscape and visual impact
  • ecology
  • transport and access
  • air quality
  • noise
  • hydrology, flood risk and water resources
  • socio-economics and human health
  • climate change

It proposes to scope out waste, material assets and lighting, on the grounds that none would produce significant effects. Those are the judgements a comment can usefully challenge now.

The site

The allocation runs to around 98 hectares. It sits immediately north of junction 19 of the M60 and next to junction 18 of the M62, which is also junction 4 of the M66. Whitefield and Prestwich lie to the west, Middleton to the east.

Heywood Old Road, the A6045, runs through the middle of it on a north-south line. The land is mostly grazing and silage grassland with hedgerows, a stream, ponds and a fishing lake, and several public rights of way cross it. Farmsteads and houses already stand within the boundary, including properties fronting Heywood Old Road on both sides.

The site straddles the borough boundary, so the eventual application goes to both Bury Council and Rochdale Borough Council. Bury takes the larger share.

The scoping report records the site as entirely within Flood Zone 1, the lowest flood risk band, and partly inside the Greater Manchester Air Quality Management Area. Heaton Park, a Grade II Registered Park and Garden, lies 80 metres to the south, separated by the M60. There is a Site of Biological Importance at Bradley Hall Farm on the eastern part of the land.

What the allocation is meant to deliver

The homes total is not new. Simister Bowlee was allocated for housing in the Places for Everyone joint plan, adopted on 21 March 2024, under policy JPA1.2. Bury Council’s own strategic site page sets out what it is expected to deliver:

  • 1,550 new homes in total: 1,350 in Bury and 200 in Rochdale
  • affordable housing at the current policy rate of 25%, around 335 affordable homes in Bury
  • specialist and older persons’ accommodation
  • a new two-form entry primary school, in the Bury part of the site
  • new community and retail facilities
  • a new spine road through the site, plus off-site highway works
  • cycleways and pedestrian links
  • public open space, sports facilities and playgrounds
  • ecological mitigation and biodiversity net gain
  • surface water attenuation and SuDS

The council adopted the Simister Bowlee Development Framework in June 2026. That document is the yardstick any application will be measured against.

Access, and the Simister village question

The scoping report is more specific than the framework on how traffic would move.

Two priority junctions are proposed on the eastern side of Heywood Old Road. On the western side there would be two primary access points, one to the northern parcel and one to the southern, joined by an internal spine road. The southern access is to be built wide enough for buses. The report also raises possible widening and surface upgrades to Blueball Lane.

For Simister village itself, the report says vehicle access from the new development through to the village is not proposed. It is “likely to be restricted to provide bus and active travel access only, and access for Simister residents only”. The report adds that this is “to be explored further within the planning application”. It is a stated intention, not a commitment.

The timetable, and how slow it is

The report sets out assumptions for the environmental assessment rather than promises, but they are the clearest published indication of pace so far. Construction “could commence 2029”, first occupation is “likely in 2030”, and full completion is anticipated “by c. 2046”.

That is a twenty-year build. Anyone reading the 1,550 figure as a number of houses arriving at once is reading it wrong.

Key dates for the Simister Bowlee 1,550-home allocation Timeline: Places for Everyone plan adopted 21 March 2024; Development Framework adopted June 2026; EIA scoping request validated 10 August 2026; comments close 3 September 2026; council opinion targeted 14 September 2026; construction could start 2029; first homes likely 2030; completion anticipated around 2046. Simister Bowlee, JPA1.2: the dates that matter 1,550 homes, of which 1,350 in Bury. Dates after 2026 are the applicant's stated assumptions. Mar 2024 PfE plan adopted Jun 2026 Development Framework adopted 10 Aug 2026 Scoping request validated 3 Sep 2026 Comments close 2029 Construction could start 2030 First homes likely occupied c. 2046 Full site completion Council opinion on the scope is targeted for 14 September 2026, taken by officers under delegated powers. The outline planning application itself has not been submitted. It will go to both Bury and Rochdale councils. Source: Bury Council planning register ref 73525; EIA Scoping Report, August 2026; Bury Council Simister Bowlee strategic site page. Graphic by The Bury Post
Key dates for the Simister Bowlee allocation. Dates from 2029 onwards are assumptions stated in the applicant's scoping report, not commitments.

Who is behind it

The applicant is Northern Gateway Development Vehicle LLP. The agent is Asteer Planning, of Mosley Street, Manchester. The case officer at Bury Council is Helen Leach.

Simister Bowlee is the residential half of the wider Northern Gateway. The employment half, allocated as JPA1.1 at Heywood and Pilsworth, is the subject of a separate outline application submitted to Rochdale Borough Council in April 2025 under reference 25/00418/OUT.

One statutory consultee has replied so far. The Coal Authority wrote to the council on 13 August confirming the site falls within its Development Low Risk Area and that it has “no specific comments to make”.

What it means for you

If you live in Simister, Bowlee, Whitefield, Prestwich or Rhodes, this is the stage at which the shape of the evidence gets fixed, and it passes quietly. There is no committee meeting and no public hearing attached to it.

  • The deadline is Thursday 3 September 2026. Comments go through the application page on the council’s register, or by email to the case officer.
  • Arguments about the principle of building here will not land now. That was settled by the Places for Everyone plan in March 2024. A comment saying the homes should not be built has nowhere to go at the scoping stage.
  • Arguments about what must be studied will land. If you think the transport assessment should cover a junction it does not, or that a topic proposed for scoping out should stay in, this is the moment that carries weight.
  • A second, bigger chance is coming. The outline application will bring its own consultation, with the full Environmental Statement to read. That is where the numbers, the layout and the mitigation get argued over.
  • Applications on this site can be tracked through our Bury planning applications page.

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