Countryside heads towards planning on North Leigh
Housebuilder Countryside has completed a consultation exercise on its plans for North Leigh Park, its 178-acre site with outline consent for 1,800 homes.
Countryside’s team is now working on finalising plans and expects to submit planning applications for phases 1a and 1b of the development in the coming weeks, consisting of around 550 mixed tenure homes including open market housing, affordable housing, both rented and shared ownership, and private rent.
The applications will also seek outline planning permission for a new local centre. The site, to the south east of Wigan, comprises mostly vacant land and is bordered by two main roads, the A577 to the north and A578 to the west with Westleigh High School to the south east of the site.
Around 150 residents and local councillors attended the drop-in event at Leigh Sports Village. Countryside acquired the site in a process run by CBRE in 2018. The site had been promoted by North Leigh Park Group, part of Guernsey-based Long Port Properties, but Long Port put the business into administration in December 2016.
John Grealis, regional operations director at Countryside, said: “We were very pleased with the attendance of the event and have gained valuable feedback from local residents and councillors regarding our plans.
“This is a 10-year project so it is vital that we build and maintain a good relationship with the local community, engaging with them throughout the whole process in a meaningful way.”
As part of the project, Countryside will also invest approximately £1m in a section of the planned new link road between junction 26 of the M6 and junction 5 of the M61. The housebuilder has said that its current intention is to build out around 1,700 homes.