Bloor presses ahead with Seashell homes
The housebuilder has lodged plans for 202 homes, the first phase of the 325-unit development that forms the residential part of the Seashell Trust’s £45m special needs school scheme in Heald Green.
The Seashell Trust, an education charity, sold the development site off Stanley Road to Bloor Homes to part-fund its plans to relocate its special needs school from another location nearby.
Bloor has now lodged a reserved matters application for the first batch of homes, 57 of which will be designated as affordable. Across the whole 325-home development, 30% of the units will be available on affordable tenures, it says.
The scheme will also include 5.5-acres of open public space across the site.
The charity-led proposals for the school and accompanying residential development on Green Belt land were approved by the Secretary of State in April following a five-week inquiry and prior refusal by Stockport Council.
The scheme was allowed despite the Secretary of State’s recognition that the proposed residential development would cause harm to the Green Belt, as noted in a previous inspector’s report.
Plans for homes and a school on Green Belt land were approved earlier this year
But the Secretary of State concluded that the local need for the scheme outweighed any harm it could cause.
NJL Consulting was the planning consultant for the project. Bloor’s planning submission follows a public consultation, managed by Lexington Communications, which ran between July and August this year.
Tony Newton, senior land director at Bloor Homes, said: “We remain totally committed to these proposals and would start on site immediately on receipt of planning permission. It will create jobs and generate economic growth.”
Newton added: “The approach to creating distinct homes and quality places has been reinforced by shifts in how people live as a result of increased flexible working, consideration of work-life balance and the ‘new normal’ established as a result of Covid-19.
“Each have emphasised the importance of delivering high-quality places for people to live and access to amenity space within gardens and open space provision.”
Seashell Trust provides specialist care to children and young people with autism, deafness, blindness, and other physical and learning disabilities.
