Councillors refused four homes on Sale's former United Services Club bowling green, rejecting officer advice and a £135,000 open space payment.

Trafford councillors have refused permission for four houses on the former bowling green beside the United Services Club in Sale. They did it against their own officers’ advice, and against a £135,000 payment the developer had already agreed to make.

The refusal notice for 117646/FUL/25 was issued on Wednesday 23 September, the day after the Planning and Development Management Committee met. It gives one reason: the scheme would cause an unacceptable loss of Protected Open Space.

What was proposed

Sixbytwo Developments Ltd applied to build two pairs of semi-detached houses on the green, at the junction of Southern Road and Park Avenue in the Ashton upon Mersey ward. Each would have been three storeys, with four bedrooms, 200 square metres of floorspace and two parking spaces reached from a new access off Southern Road.

Officers recommended the committee was “minded to grant” it. Their report set out why:

  • bowls stopped on the green in September 2022, and the Sale branch of the Cheshire league it played in closed the same month
  • about 30 members played or used the green socially
  • the land was sold to the applicant in April 2023, separating it from the clubhouse and the car park, which stayed with the club
  • officers judged it “highly unlikely” the green could be brought back into use without those supporting facilities
  • the developer agreed to pay £135,000 towards improving open space elsewhere, a figure the council’s Strategic Planning team calculated from Sport England costs for the final quarter of 2025

Why it went to committee at all

The application reached a public meeting for one reason, stated plainly at the top of the officer report: it had received “thirteen representations contrary to the officer recommendation”.

That trigger disappears on 31 October. Under the national scheme of delegation coming into force that day, objections no longer send an application to committee, and neither does a ward councillor’s call-in. We set out what replaces them in our report on the end of call-in in Trafford. So this was one of the last applications in Trafford that residents’ objections alone could put in front of elected members.

Sale Civic Society objected too, saying the green had been in use since 1921 and that four houses would be overdevelopment. Councillor Tony O’Brien, one of the three Ashton upon Mersey ward members, spoke against the application at the meeting.

The additional information report tabled on the night records three further representations. One asked the council to confirm which company would actually sign the £135,000 agreement, after the applicant’s name changed from Six by Two Properties Limited to Sixbytwo Developments Ltd on an amended form submitted on 21 September. Another argued the £135,000 was only a minimum, set at 70 per cent of the cost of a new bowling green, with no commitment that the money would be spent where local residents would feel it.

The reason for refusal

The notice says the development would cause an unacceptable loss of Protected Open Space, and that the application failed to show the land was surplus to requirements, that it would not leave a local shortfall, or that it would be replaced by something equivalent or better nearby. It cites Policy R5 of the Trafford Core Strategy, Policy JP-P7 of the Places for Everyone plan and the national decision-making policies, including Policy HC7.

The council’s own Strategic Planning team had made the argument the committee went with. Its consultation response said open space is designated for more than its sporting use, and that the site “still merits protection for its current and historic intrinsic open space character” even if the bowling itself could happen somewhere else.

The fourth refusal on this site since 2020

This is not the first scheme to fail here. The officer report lists three earlier ones:

  • 98968/FUL/19, one house and a garage on the club’s car park, refused 17 April 2020 on highway safety grounds. The appeal was dismissed.
  • 102296/FUL/20, a single dwelling, refused 16 April 2021 for the loss of up to 13 car parking spaces and its effect on neighbours.
  • 112062/FUL/23, four semi-detached houses on the bowling green, refused 12 March 2024 for loss of protected open space, the design of the rear parking area, the impact on 92 Park Avenue and the access arrangements.

The application refused this week was the revised version of that last one.

Timeline of planning decisions on the United Services Club site in Sale: April 2020, one house on the club car park refused and the appeal dismissed; April 2021, a single dwelling on the car park refused over the loss of 13 parking spaces; September 2022, bowls ends on the green as the Sale branch of the Cheshire league closes; April 2023, the green is sold to the developer while the clubhouse and car park stay with the club; March 2024, four houses refused for loss of protected open space among other reasons; September 2026, four houses refused again on the single ground of loss of protected open space.
Every planning decision on the United Services Club site and its car park since 2020. Graphic by The Alty Post.
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The meeting did not finish

The committee got through very little of its agenda. Trafford has since listed a reconvened meeting for Thursday 8 October at 6.30pm, described on the council’s own calendar as being held “further to the adjournment of the meeting held on 22nd September, 2026”, with a note telling members to refer to the papers already circulated (reconvened meeting listing).

Seven of the eight applications on the 22 September agenda were still recorded as “awaiting decision” on the council’s planning register on Wednesday 24 September. They include:

  • 115029/FUL/24, 499 Chester Road, Old Trafford, which drew 34 objection letters and a representation from residents of Stanley Road, Humphrey Road and St Hilda’s Road
  • 118903/FUL/26, the former Royal Bank of Scotland on Central Road, Partington
  • 118997/COU/26, the former National Grid depot on Thomas Street, Stretford
  • 119301/VAR/26, 38 High Elm Road, Hale Barns
  • 119353/FUL/26, 160-160A Moss Lane, Hale
  • 119352/FUL/26, 307 Stockport Road, Timperley
  • 119357/HHA/26, 22 Sydney Street, Stretford

Also unresolved is the report that rewrites the council’s constitution for the national scheme of delegation. The committee was asked to recommend it to Full Council on 14 October. The reconvened meeting now falls six days before that.

What it means for you

If you live near the site on Southern Road or Park Avenue, nothing is built and nothing is settled. A refusal can be appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, and the notice gives the applicant six months from 23 September to do it. The land remains allocated as Protected Open Space in the adopted plan, which is the ground the committee refused on, and the same ground it refused on in March 2024.

If you have an application or an objection of your own in Trafford, the more useful date is 31 October. After that, thirteen objection letters will not put a scheme in front of the committee the way they did here. Two people, a nominated officer and a nominated member, decide instead, and they are not required to meet in public.

If your interest is in the seven undecided applications, the reconvened meeting is on Thursday 8 October at 6.30pm at Trafford Town Hall on Talbot Road in Stretford, and it is streamed on the council’s YouTube channel. Written public questions go to Democratic Services at democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk by 4pm on the working day before. We follow Trafford’s decisions on our Altrincham planning news page.

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