Liverpool-to-Manchester rail link land row heads to High Court
Bridgemere Group and subsidiary Castle Green Homes have been granted permission to challenge the Department for Transport’s decision to delay the approval of the developers’ 330-home scheme on land in Warrington that could accommodate a section of the proposed Northern Arc rail scheme.
Castle Green had been expecting to secure approval for a housing development on a 51-acre site at Thelwall Heyes outside of Warrington – which is allocated for development in the council’s local plan – in January.
However, just two days before a committee meeting to determine the application “a senior civil servant at the Department for Transport on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport… [directed] Warrington Council not to grant permission on this application for a period of 6 months”. This moratorium has since been extended to 30 October 2026.
Warrington discussed the plans at the meeting regardless and voted unanimously in favour of approval. However, this permission cannot be implemented until the DfT’s direction is lifted.
Court papers reveal that, prior to the meeting, Castle Green had been in discussions with the DfT about the land, which is located on the potential route of the proposed new Liverpool-to-Manchester railway line, part of Northern Powerhouse Rail.
The DfT had been seeking to secure an option to acquire the site for £60m as part of the land assembly process for the infrastructure project and discussions with Castle Green had been “progressing well”, according to court papers.
The DfT’s subsequent decision to prevent the housing project progressing was described by Castle Green’s lawyers as “unexpected” and “unprecedented”.
The lawyer argues that the type of direction handed down by the DfT was unlawful and that “the only lawful course was to issue a safeguarding direction, which would have triggered the statutory blight provisions”, according to the court papers.
“What was done here was an attempt to secure the benefit of such a direction (so far as the Secretary of State was concerned) while circumventing the operation of the blight provisions,” the papers state.
A judge has now ruled that the developer can take the DfT to the High Court over the direction.
The DfT said the claim was “totally without merit”.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Northern Powerhouse Rail is the biggest investment in rail connectivity in a generation and is set to add up to £40bn a year to our economy.
“This government is committed to taking NPR forward, applying lessons from HS2 by working in partnership with local leaders to bring rail across the North into the 21st century whilst delivering value for taxpayers. This is essential to unlock economic growth and create thousands of new jobs and homes across the region.”
Bridgemere and Castle Green declined to comment.
Surely this makes absolute sense to delay until a rail plan is fully formed
By Anonymous
The developer’s lawyer’s claim that this was “unexpected” and “unprecedented” is technically true, since the North has not had major rail infrastructure during their lifetime. But that is thankfully changing. What has happened far too often is land that was previous rail alignments have been sold to developers so they destroy any chance of those rail lines returning. We must never happen again. It was right for this development to be put on hold until the rail alignment is confirmed. Local and national infrastructure must come first.
By EOD
South Warrington is desperate for better rail connection, the reliance on the car is not helping the poor roads in and around Warrington. Hopefully or new PM with a track record in public transport can get involved and push the rail proposals forward to help uncertainty on the route, as I doubt it will affect this site.
By Anonymous
Seems a sensible move not to release the land until the issue about rail line resolved . The rail line a key strategic issue for the north far more important than a few houses
By Geoy
Northern Powerhouse Rail is taking entirely the wrong approach to transport upgrading in the North West.
An entirely different approach that would keep both the house builders and commuters happy is suggested at , A railway revolution to challenge self-driving cars – Cheshire Innovation
By William Alexander Courtney
It is absolutely shameful for infrastructure projects to be put on hold for such reasons. What a waste of time and money.
By Anonymous
Northern Powerhouse Rail is a national infrastructure scheme. You can’t put a few houses across it’s route. It’s been known for years by Warrington their planners need to wake up
By Frank
Why did it take so long for the DfT to realise they might need this land for NPR?
By Thomas
Warrington seem to be trying to have their cake and eat it here, approve the Castle Green development while also promoting NPR and the large development scheme at Bank Quay. They can’t obviously have both.
By WayFay
People need homes. Nobody needs a third railway line between Manchester and Liverpool. The blight and disruption this unwanted vanity project will cause is akin to HS2.
By Anonymous
Low-density, car-dominated housing like this is not in the national interest and should be banished outright. Investment in future infrastructure such as the Liv-Man rail will bring prosperity to the region and must be prioritised. There will be plenty of opportunity for housing at increased densities close to new train stations.
By Little Jimmy
Please, hurry up and get NPR built. Learn from the messes made of Crossrail and HS2 and for goodness sake let’s get it built and delivering value.
By Get on with Rail
Er Warrington transport team knew all about this as did the new CA. How come the planners didn’t, where they hiding in a cave
By Anonymous
Trainline says Liv-to-Mac fastest traintime is 31 mins (or 34) non-stop every 20-30 mins at peak-times. NPR – a solution looking for a problem? Why? Who pockets the billions of pounds?
By Anonymous
A vanity scheme that will keep consultants going for years.
By Anonymous
The NPR line was first mooted in 2014 with over a decade of iterations and revisions.This site was a draft allocation in 2021 and subsequently adopted late 2023. Did the DfT not make representations. All sounds ill considered and lacking foresight. Another hole in Warrington’s housing numbers ?
By Rodney Street
Totally agree with Little Jimmy. Castle Green is only interested in selling bog standard rammed in housing and isn’t interested in improving public transport for Warrington or the wider region. The UK for far too long has not future proofed cities to the detriment of the economy ands its residents.
By GetItBuilt!
Comments (understandably) missing the rather technical point here. Government CAN stop planning for infrastructure but has to “safeguard” the route and buy the site at market value if it is “blighted” by a scheme. To not follow the process is basically theft and DFT should know better. Their comment totally fails to address the point! By trying to ride rough-shot over people is what created such resistance and therefore cost for Hs2….
By Need to follow the law
Glad to see the powers that be heeded my warning and this development is being blocked. I flagged this to LCRCA amd the DfT over a year ago, and I told Castle Green Homes directly. This is not a suprise for them. No idea what Warrington BC are playing at. Do they not want NPR!?
By Anonymous
The rail network is more important than building housing estates with out infrastructure and road networks that cannot take anymore traffic
By Anonymous
Just electrify.and add some passing loops to the Liverpool to Manchester train line via Warrington central, be a lot cheaper
By Tony
The government should exercise all the powers it has to demonstrate that those who stand in the way of the development of national infrastructure will be punished. Ridiculous that Warrington Council even approved it with the direction in place.
By Anonymous
This site runs directly through the NPR, HS2 and future Eurostar route to Liverpool. Its strategic importance cannot be understated. How Castle Green’s proposals were even allowed to get this far is beyond me, as is Warrington BC decision to approve the scheme in January, knowing full well the strategic importance of the route. Planners at Warrington BC need to get their heads out of their a*ses. The Secretary of State was right to block Castle Green’s proposals, however this should’ve been done a year ago. We simply cannot allow housing proposals like this get in the way of critical national infrastructure, that must always take priority. As soon as Castle Green Homes were made aware of the site’s importance – which was well over a year ago – they should have ceased work on the project and looked to relocate the development. The fact they have decided not to do so is on them. Instead of putting their time and energy hiring a legal team to push forward their plans to build a housing estate on a site of national strategic importance, they should desist immediately and look for alternative site. This is exactly the kind of nonsense that has bogged down HS2. They knew the importance of the site and they pushed ahead anyway. Hope the judge slaps a fine on Castle Green Homes for wasting everyone’s time.
By Anonymous
@Anonymous July 30th at 11.42am
There no Eurostar between Europe to Liverpool via Channel Tunnel in the future because Virgin high speed train will be new operations 2030 from London to Europe start 2030 will be Routes to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. There no Eurostar after 2030 caused by Brexit.
By G J Kitchener
Warrington happy to provisionally approve so they can have an excuse for not hitting their housing target?
By Anonymous
What happened to all the landowners left in limbo by HS2 link to Manchester that was dumped?
By Dave Siddall
@Dave Siddall July 30th at 15.46m
HS2 link to Manchester is still unknown because there no hand on the table. HS2 from london to Birmingham is still project as under construction. Have a lovely weekend mate 👍🏻
By G J Kitchener
No developer should stymie rail upgrades that will benefit society for decades into the future. However the “Blight” rules should be applied to existing properties.
By Brian
As the Public Accounts Committee pointed out last month, there is no publicly agreed route for NPR (making cost estimates guesswork). The direction from the DfT to Warrington Council was not to issue a Decision Notice but the application could still be determined so there were no grounds for deferring the decision.
By Steve Parish
Transpenine trail is a beautiful walk for many local people in Thelwall and Lymm. Please do not ruin it with a train line. We chose to live here because we don’t want to be near trains and buses.
By Anonymous