Manchester approves £10.2m Curry Mile resi at second time of asking
Views’ plans for 42 flats off Wilmslow Road in Rusholme have been given the go-ahead two years after they were rejected by the city council’s planning committee.
Meanwhile, Lidl has been given consent to tweak plans for its planned store at Fallowfield Shopping Centre.
Curry Mile resi
Developer: Views
Planner: Ashton Hale
Architect: Ollier Smurthwaite
Planning reference: 138662/FO/2023
Developer Views initially put forward its plans, designed by Ollier Smurthwaite, for the Rusholme site in 2022, only to see them rejected for a variety of reasons.
Revised plans were submitted in December last year, with the height scaled back and number of parking spots increased from 12 to 15 – an increase in street parking had been one issue raised with the initial proposal.
The Wilmslow Road frontage would be four storeys, before dropping to three along the longer Grandale Street frontage. The MOT garage on site will be removed.
Consultation carried out on the amended plans garnered 13 responses, 11 of them objecting.
Statutory consultees raise no major concerns, with the highways officer satisfied with the parking element. The scheme was unanimously approved with committee members satisfied the tweaks made to the scheme had addressed the earlier issues.
Patrick Sheridan, senior development manager at Views, said: “We are very pleased to have worked closely with Manchester City Council to secure planning permission for this important site.
“Our proposals will deliver much-needed new homes and a retail offering to support the ever-growing, diverse and vibrant Manchester community.”
Fallowfield Lidl
Developer: Lidl
Planner: Rapleys
Architect: SMR Architects
Planning reference: 139751/FO/2024
At Fallowfield Shopping Centre, the busy retail park at the junction of Birchfields Road, Kingsway and Moseley Road, Lidl secured consent in 2022 for a new foodstore, replacing six retail units.
The grocer has been given permission to tweak those plans, making changes to the building’s footprint and parking configuration, while also bringing in two sub-let retail units.
The existing medical centre will be demolished, something planning officers describe as “regrettable” in a report to the city council’s planning committee.
The footprint of the new store would be 8,672 sq ft larger than the footprint of the existing buildings, and would have a sales area around 2,000 sq ft larger than that greenlit in the extant permission – the expansion coming in line with a subtle shift in Lidl’s operating model.
When will Greater Manchester see its first mixed-use Aldi/Lidl development with residential above? This could have been a great candidate in such a sustainable location. They could have even combined the new Lidl store in to a block with a new medical centre! It’s been done down in the south in Epsom, Surrey. I wonder if land values are still stopping it coming forward further north, or it just needs a planning authority to try and push back? Ah well, let’s see what happens with the next one…
By Urbanist GM Dreams...
Absolutely furious that the NHS practise will be replaced with 26 parking spaces that Lidl said it will never even need at peak times. What on Earth is wrong with the people that approved this change….
By Anonymous
Urbanist GM Dreams – that’s bang on. Lidl and Aldi’s small format stores and broad appeal are great additions to urban neighbourhoods, but would be even better if they also thickened up places, and made more effort to support foot traffic or cycling.
By Rich X
Really hope the Ollier Smurthwaite scheme gets built, would be a really positive move for the area
By Bradford
Imagine if Rusholme became trendy/an actual place to visit
By Anonymous
Rusholme will never be trendy as long as it remains dry and filled with cars
By Anonymous