Astley Business Park warehouses: can nearby homeowners claim compensation?

The concerns raised locally around the development are the familiar ones for a warehouse site next to housing: lorry noise across the day and into the night, yard and column lighting, and surface water and drainage. Wigan Council has acknowledged concerns about noise and drainage associated with the development, and the planning approval included a highway contribution.

Planning conditions, environmental protection and drainage consents are one route for those issues. Compensation for the value your home has lost is a separate route — and it has its own, narrower test.

Part 1 of the Land Compensation Act 1973 compensates the depreciation in your property’s value caused by physical factors from the use of public works. A private warehouse is not, in itself, public works. The public work most likely to be in play at Astley is the highway: a stretch of adopted road that was newly constructed, or materially altered, as part of delivering the scheme.

Developer highway works of that kind are normally delivered under a Section 278 agreement (works to an existing public highway, such as a new access, a widened or reconfigured junction or a new roundabout) or a Section 38 agreement (new road adopted as public highway). Where such works exist and are in use, homes affected by physical factors from the altered section can have a claim.

Part 1 does not compensate you simply because an existing road has become busier. Intensification of the use of an existing public work does not create the entitlement. Where an existing highway has been altered, compensation is confined to the additional depreciation caused by physical factors arising from the altered section of carriageway.

• Potentially qualifying: a junction or access on Astley Park Way was widened or reconfigured, HGVs using that altered section materially increase noise and vibration at nearby homes, and a buyer would pay less as a result.
• Probably not qualifying: the warehouses open and far more lorries drive along an otherwise unchanged length of Chaddock Lane.
• Excluded either way: loss of view, loss of light, loss of privacy, visual impact, and disruption during construction.

Noise

HGV movements, reversing alarms, yard activity and traffic on any altered stretch of carriageway.

Vibration

Heavy vehicles over a new access or reconfigured junction close to older housing.

Artificial lighting

Column and yard lighting, and headlights swinging across frontages from a new access.

Fumes, smoke and smell

Diesel exhaust concentrated at a new access point or standing traffic.

Discharge of a substance

Surface water or other discharge reaching neighbouring land — a live local concern.

Smell and smoke complete the seven statutory factors. Any one of them, if it reaches your property from the use of the works and a buyer would pay less for it, can support a claim.

A claim cannot be made until the relevant highway has been open to traffic for twelve months. That first claim day is also the valuation date, and a claim should normally be brought within six years of it. Claim too early and it is premature; leave it too long and it is out of time.

If the relevant works at Astley are not yet in use, or the opening date is not yet fixed, the right move is to register now so you are told the day the twelve-month clock starts rather than finding out after the window has closed.

• The approved highways drawings and Transport Assessment for A/23/96226/MAJOR.
• Any Section 278 or Section 38 agreement, to identify precisely which lengths of public highway were newly built or altered.
• The date those works first opened, or are due to open, to traffic.
• The residential streets within range of physical factors from those sections.

Until those documents are reviewed we treat Astley as one to investigate rather than a settled claim opportunity — we would rather tell you that than sell you certainty that does not exist yet. Registering costs you nothing and puts your property on the list we check against those drawings.

Can I claim because hundreds of HGVs now pass my house?

Not on that basis alone. Part 1 compensates for physical factors from the use of new or materially altered public works. More lorries on an otherwise unchanged road is intensification of an existing public work, which does not by itself create an entitlement. Where a stretch of public highway was newly built or altered for the development, compensation can be claimed for the additional loss in value caused by physical factors from that altered section.

What counts as an altered road?

A change to the position, level or width of the carriageway, or the provision of an additional carriageway — for example a new access, a widened or reconfigured junction, or a new roundabout. Resurfacing or a change to signs and markings is not enough.

Can I claim for the warehouses blocking my view or overlooking me?

No. Loss of a view, loss of natural light, loss of privacy and general visual impact are outside Part 1. So is disruption during construction. The claim is for value lost through noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, artificial lighting or the discharge of a substance from the use of the works.

When could a claim be made?

A Part 1 claim cannot be made until twelve months after the relevant highway first opens, or reopens, to traffic. That date is the first claim day, values are assessed as at that date, and a claim should normally be brought within six years of it. If the relevant works are not yet in use, register for a reminder and we will tell you the day the clock starts.

What would it cost me?

There is a £100 administration fee to open a case. Professional fees on a successful claim are recoverable from the acquiring authority under Ryde's Scale, so a settled claim does not come out of your compensation.