Bury signs off Hive brownfield deals
Updated offers for the Seedfields and School Street sites have been rubber-stamped by the council’s cabinet, meaning 177 homes can advance.
All told, 309 Bury homes can move forward following last night’s meeting, 142 of them affordable, with progress also noted on the deal with Watson Homes at Green Street, Radcliffe.
The former Seedfields School site is described as semi-derelict. Hive Homes, a joint venture between 10 registered providers and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, proposes a scheme of 86 family homes, including 22 affordable homes – 11 of which will be gifted to the council.
The clock is ticking for the Seedfields project. Brownfield development funding of £995,000 allocated by GMCA to the site requires drawing-down by March 2023, and a planning application is needed within weeks.
The other sites concerned are School Street and Green Street in Radcliffe, both of which fall within the strategic regeneration framework for that district. Cabinet also rubber-stamped progress at those sites, which were examined by them in October 2021.
GMCA cash has already been spent at School Street, which is now development-ready.
According to cabinet papers, exchange of contracts is “imminent” with Salford-based developer Watson Homes for the former swimming pool site at Green Street, where the company is working with Great Places on a 132-home project, 97 of them available on affordable tenures.
The scheme also includes 13,000 sq ft of commercial space.
A change of tack has been necessary at Seedfields and the School Street site, which is also being advanced by Hive. The offers on both sites have required restructuring after it emerged Homes England support would not be available.
School Street formerly housed a grammar school. A council grant of £882,000 paid for remediation, a sum repayable if housing outputs are not delivered by March 2025.
Ninety one homes are prosed for the site, 23 of them affordable. Sox of these will be gifted to the council, in addition to a cash payment for the land.
As outlined in the cabinet papers, Bury Council is amid an accelerated land disposal programme with a threefold goal: raising capital receipts, unlocking housing and employment sites and leveraging private investment on brownfield sites.
As for financial implications, the cabinet papers record: “Through negotiation the Council has been able to transfer grant repayment to the purchaser of School Street. This will save the Council £882,000.
“Should the grant of £995,000 be retained on the Seedfields site, the current offer will exceed the Red Book valuation and demolition costs will not need to be taken off the offer price.”
