HCA submits plan for 77 homes in Lancaster
The Homes & Communities Agency has submitted a hybrid planning application to Lancaster City Council to build on an 8.5-acre site at Royal Albert Farm, after it withdrew an application in 2015.
The HCA is seeking outline permission to build 71 homes and to convert the Derby Home building into six apartments. It also looks to build a 148-space car park. The 71 homes would be three, four and five-bedroomed properties with the aim to provide family housing, while Derby Home would contain mostly one and two-bed apartments.
The 2015 withdrawal was made for the HCA to address comments raised during the consultation period, namely regarding the planned demolition of Derby Home. This application instead looks to renovate Derby Home, which once
formed part of the Royal Albert Hospital, until its closure in the mid-1990s. It has since remained unused.
The planning consultant is Nexus and Broadway Maylan has provided design and masterplanning. According to Nexus, the site has been allocated for residential development since the Lancaster District Local Plan was adopted in 2004.
If the application is approved, the HCA will seek to dispose of the site to a housebuilder by the end of the year. Nexus continued that if the land was sold to a developer, a further detailed application would be submitted.
A design and access statement supporting the application said: “The works required to facilitate the conversion of Derby Home to apartments will ensure that the existing fabric and form of the building will remain largely unchanged and include measures to restore and repair the building to improve its overall appearance and historic setting.”
A determination deadline of 11 December has been set by Lancaster City Council.
