Carlisle sets out next steps for UK’s largest Garden Village
Carlisle City Council is looking to start the second stage of masterplanning for its 10,000-home St Cuthbert’s Garden Village by the end of the month with a consultation due to be held in May.
The site is one of 14 of the Government’s Garden Villages across the country and sits to the south of the city centre. In terms of housing numbers, Carlisle City Council claims the site is the largest in the country with the capacity for 10,325 homes.
Masterplanner Gillespies, transport planner WYG, and Lambert Smith Hampton are already on board and have worked up initial plans for the site, and the council is now looking to confirm its team for the second stage of masterplanning by the end of this month.
Under a timescale set out by Carlisle City Council, a public consultation on different options for the site will begin in May this year and will run for six weeks. Following this a draft masterplan will be prepared in the summer, followed by a further six weeks of consultation, and a final masterplan is due to be signed off by the council by late October.
The development of the site is to be supported by a new link road connecting Junction 42 of the M6 and the A595; an application for £102m of Housing Infrastructure Fund money has been put forward to the Government although the outcome of this bid is not yet known.
If the funding bid is successful, construction of this link road has been earmarked for 2021 and would complete in 2021; a planning application is expected in late 2019.
The council still intends to bring forward the road if the funding bid fails, with a phased approach to be taken whilst alternative funding sources are confirmed. Some of the funding is also likely to come from developer contributions via a Community Infrastructure Levy.
An initial consultation on the Garden Village was held last summer, which fed in to the first stage of masterplanning for the site. Engagement with landowners is already under way.
Find out more about opportunities in the area at Place North West’s Cumbria Development Update, taking place in Kendal on 28 February. Click here to book tickets.
