Iron Line hub heads packed Cumberland docket
Part of the £29m Millom Town Deal, a visitor centre at Hodbarrow Nature Reserve will be a feature of the coastal walkway, and is the standout item on a planning agenda also featuring a Premier Inn, a care home and affordable housing.
Cumberland Council’s planning committee meets on 25 February and will consider a rich variety of proposals.
Iron Line visitor centre (Copeland reference 4/25/2198/0F1)
At Hodbarrow, Story Contracting was selected last year for the scheme, working with the council as applicant for a project that involves the building of a visitor centre within a 142-acre site adjacent to the Duddon Estuary. The project is part of the Iron Line coastal pathway, a key project within the Millom Town Deal.
The 4,433 sq ft centre is to include a café/shop, group room, staff/volunteer, toilet facilities and car park. Architects Plus is the project designer, with Layer.studio, CWC, Curtins, Placed and Greengage also on the professional team.
The project also includes consolidation repair and installation of interpretive sculpture to Towsey Hole Windmill; refurbishment of an existing tern hide and building new hides and viewing screens, as well as pathways, gateway features, street furniture and parking improvements, as well as landscaping enhancements.
The Iron Line forms part of the Millom & Haverigg Town Investment Plan.
Premier Inn (Carlisle reference 25/0661)
With Turley and designer Allison Pike advising, Premier Inn parent company Whitbread wants to deliver a hotel on the site on the site of the former Central Plaza Hotel at Victoria Viaduct.
The site contains a section of the grade two-listed medieval city walls which act as a retaining wall to West Walls. The site is currently accessed from Backhouse Walk to the south, with direct access not currently available from Victoria Viaduct or West Walls given level differences. Victoria Viaduct, to the east, features retail and office buildings linking onto English Street and Devonshire Street at the northern edge of Carlisle’s retail centre. Carlisle railway station lies further to the east beside the Carlisle Citadel.
The listed previous hotel had been closed down before being ruined by fire, and demolished in 2019. Premier Inn intends to deliver a five-storey, 104-key hotel. Approval is recommended.
Care home at Caldew Hospital site (Carlisle reference 22/0956)
On behalf of Oculus Real Estate, LGA Developments wants permission for a 72-bed later living care facility. DPP is the planning advisor.
Approval is recommended for the project at the Dalston Road site, described as 25 minutes walk south-west of Carlisle city centre.
The site is flanked by residential development on all sides, and has a busy recent planning history. Two separate schemes came forward for apartments and/or housing, but neither were determined, before 2018 saw consent given for a 72-bed care home.
Land north of Burgh Road (Carlisle reference 24/0515)
Home Group, working with Summit Town Planning, is behind plans for 114 affordable homes. The project has appeared before committee before, but returns due to a change in tenure and changes in requirements around nutrient neutrality, which means conditions attached to the consent will be altered.
The site is around seven acres and is vacant, sitting north of Burgh Road, bounded by residential development to the south, Burgh Road Industrial Estate to the east and agricultural land to the north and west. The River Eden is located approximately 180m to the north of the site.
Like the previous proposal, the scheme still seeks to present 100% affordable housing, but the mix is proposed to change from 100% affordable homes for rent to 60% affordable rental units and 40% social rented properties.
