Barratt eyes 37 acres of Wirral Green Belt
Plans for up to 300 homes off Chester Road on the edge of Heswall are being drawn up by the volume housebuilder.
Barratt Homes’ Manchester division has lodged a request for an EIA screening opinion with Wirral Council, in which the developer via consultancy Pegasus argues that an environmental impact assessment should not be required for the scheme.
The land parcel is located within the Green Belt to the south of Heswall between Chester Road and the Bidston to Wrexham railway line.
Barratt is working up outline plans for 300 homes, a proportion of which would be affordable. The homes would be built over the next six years, according to planning documents.
Public open space and play areas as well as pedestrian and cycle routes are planned as part of the development.
To learn more, search for reference number SCR/26/00352 on Wirral Council’s planning portal.
Wirral Council were told all throughout the Local Plan preparation process that their brownfield-only approach wouldn’t work and there needed to be a sensible discussion on the release of appropriate Green Belt land to meet housing needs. They chose to kick the can down the road and here we are – volume housebuilders bringing forward speculative development on Green Belt land in the most valuable areas, rather than in locations where the delivery of housing could have the greatest impact on local economic growth. If only the decision makers at the council had grown a backbone and listened to the professionals rather than the NIMBYs and councillors seeking re-election during the Local Plan preparation process…
By Anonymous
“You can build 300 high quality family homes inside 5 9-storey blocks on just one of those fields and keep the green space!”
– me, screaming into the void
By M. I. Grant
M. I. Grant – do you really think there’s market demand from 300 families looking to live in a tower block in south Wirral?
By Anonymous
This country’s obsession with sprawling suburbia is so toxic.
By Anonymous
Always looked a good strategic land opprotunity. Doesn’t really serve a greenbelt purpose, good facilities, schools and transport links nearby although there are lots of similar sites across the Wirral. The Council will need to show increasing delivery of their brownfield first policy to stop these from coming forward although over time, these sites will happen.
By Rodney Street
Unfortunately all the original sites that were identified in Wirral Councils Greenbelt review in 2017 Will probably be approved for housing. Any sites that fall within the Dee Estuary Area of Special Landscape Value will continue to be protected.
By Rob Whittle
Sneaky bunch. Such houses won’t help struggling people. There are plots all over the Wirral, Brownfield pots but they won’t make as much money. Any field is better that rows of houses. Scrubland provides habitats for many creatures.
By Sam Batey
Plenty of brownfield sites on the Wirral leave the greenbelt alone
By Anonymous
Go ahead with the plan. We need lots homes for the next generation.
By Mike
I am against losing so much greenbelt land in Wirral when Brown field sites and places in need of development in other areas of Wirral are not being looked at first for housing stck if needed. I am against this planning application as I do not feel WBC are looking at appropriate brown sites first and selling off green belt land for profit not for the benefit of Wirral residents.
By Anonymous
Developers wave their magic wand of ‘affordable’ housing around and expect planning to roll over. However how affordable will these actually be in Heswall? Its just a tick box exercise from developers, they care little about affordability. The council should stick to its brownfield sites of which there are still many which actually would lead to affordable properties! And finally, infrastructure seriously lacking, that should be priority, doctors, dentists, schools, transport BEFORE more housing.
By Lynn
Well we all know who goes top of the list for those. Never mind lets destroy all wildlife and their habitat how dare they try survive on this planet.
By Anonymous
As long as it is for much needed social housing. There are plenty of private dwellings available on the Wirral Peninsula.
By Pm Sharp
Now all greenbelt is up for grabs by predatory builders. Brownfield sites?Too expensive to build. Juicy fields-simples. The floodgates are open, will prices fall?Not a chance. Disgusting. Its all Labours plan for levelling down.
By Patriot
Leave the green belt – there are plenty of other areas, including brown belt land that would be enhanced with modern developments.
Including parks, recreational spaces, playgrounds and cycleways – don’t only have to be planned into green belt areas.
By JWHandley
It’s an absolute disgrace to build on green belt land, brown belt only!!!
By Anonymous
300 homes are likely to have at least 1000 residents who will require a doctor, heswall doctors are having to serve about 17,000 patients at present and some days can not offer appointments.
Can they cope with another 1000 patients.
Also there are likely to be hundreds of children looking for school places in the local schools which are presently full.
I hope the local councillors will fight this plan
By Anonymous
Sorry to offer a dose of reality to come of the commentators on this thread, but people buy houses where they choose to live, not where social engineers would rather they be. Families paying to live in apartment blocks in downtown Birkenhead? Good luck with that.
By More Anonymous than the Others
To the people commenting saying that residential development in Wirral should only be permitted on brownfield sites, where are all of the deliverable brownfield sites to the west of the M53? In reality, these people are suggesting that young people should not have the right to aspire to live in the part of the borough that they grew up. West Wirral is for the boomers only. Any young people wanting to purchase a home must be constrained to living in a high rise slum in Birkenhead. It is an astonishingly selfish, and frankly disgusting spectacle. The people calling out proposals like this should be ashamed of themselves.
By Anonymous
@More Anonymous than the Others — but will these actually be affordable homes in places people want to live? That’s the real issue, and the answer seems to be no. Just look at Rightmove—many properties in West Wirral have been sitting unsold for over six months, even after multiple price reductions. That hardly suggests strong demand. It feels like developers are overstating the need to justify building in the wrong places.
By Anonymous
Apart from the erosion of green belt, impact on a healthy traffic route will be hard. But it then becomes where to next. Plenty of areas that need development or redeveloping. Affordable housing is laughable
By Anonymous
Classic parasitic development. Cashing in on the desirability of the area whilst giving nothing back but ugliness and traffic congestion.
By Anonymous
If the potential for ripping off flat dwellers with service charges could be brought under control and help for people on stable but not very high incomes could be offered ( to enable people to buy,not rent) these could be useful. So long as there are services and facilities in the area, Views and fresh air with good transport would appeal to many.Not everyone wants a garden.
By Sam