Barratt David Wilson primed for St Helens go-ahead
Full permission is sought for 445 homes across two plots at Florida Farm South, Haydock, with 30% due to be classed as affordable.
The 46-acre greenfield site itself sits to the south of the A580 East Lancs Road, east of the A58 Liverpool Road, west of Springfield Park and Avery Road and north of Vicarage Drive, Brookside Way and Avondale Road.
Two access points are planned, one from the East Lancs and one from the Vicarage Road side. A central spine would join the two entrance points.
BDW’s site is split into two parts, with Clipsley Brook running though the centre of the site in a generally north/south direction. The site is allocated for housing.
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To the west of Clipsley Brook is the David Wilson Homes portion of the site; to the east up to the western boundary of Slag Lane is the Barratt portion.
St Helens Council’s planning committee will consider the proposals at its meeting on 18 March. More than 100 objections have been lodged.
As proposed, the breakdown of housing is: 152 four-beds, 180 three-beds, 95 two-beds, and 18 one-beds. Seventy per cent of the homes will be sold at market rate.
Homes at the site go from one to four bedrooms. Credit: planning documents
BDW has trimmed the proposed volume of housing since floating an initial 464 homes. to As officers outline, this was to address concerns over the overall quality of the development and also to facilitate bridge structures to cross the watercourse, rather than use culverts as originally proposed. The developer is working with escape urbanists on the project.
In addition, this application does not include the whole allocation – BDW has submitted an outline masterplan showing how the overall site’s additional parcels could be developed under subsequent proposals.
Should the plans be approved, the housebuilding giant would pay a Section 106 contribution covering various areas and amounting to £3.6m+.
Recommending approval, officers summed up that “the scheme has been amended since the first submission, with planning officers and consultees having worked hard to provide a scheme that delivers the highest quality environment to terms of the landscaping, street hierarchy, natural environments and financial contributions.
“The application site is an allocated housing site through the Local Plan and would deliver a strong mix of residential dwellings within a sustainable location, contributing towards housing figures within the Borough as required by local and national planning policy.”
The plans can be viewed on St Helens’ planning portal with the reference P/2023/0512/FUL.
