All-clear for Airfields housing

Flintshire Council has given the go-ahead for 368 homes at the former RAF Sealand South Camp site, a proposal from Bellway Homes and Anwyl.

The reserved matters application covers phases two and three of the housebuilders’ work in the area within the Airfields masterplan.

The Airfields development as a whole, along with the Garden City development at the former Corus steelworks, makes up the wider Northern Gateway, the largest strategic site in Flintshire.

Advised by Lichfields, Bellway and Anwyl had in place an outline approval for the 29-acre site making up these phases, and the plans were approved at Flintshire’s December planning committee by nine votes to two.

Officers had recommended approval on the proviso that agreement can be reached on a range of contributions.

These include more than £1.7m for primary and secondary education in the area, the provision of 10% affordable housing, and that a management company is formed to look after onsite open and landscaped spaces.

Tenure is split as 10 one-bedroom apartments, all affordable, 31 two-bed dwellings (20 affordable), 211 three-bed homes (seven affordable) and 116 four-bedroom homes. The houses will be accessed from internal estate roads feeding from approved Airfields highways infrastructure.

The site comprises three parts, and is brownfield land formerly occupied by RAF buildings, and sits at the southern boundary of the Airfields site.

Plans had been submitted in spring, with the housebuilders revealing the brand Summers Bridge, in recognition of a local steel tycoon, for the £40m development.

Approval marks a major milestone for development in the area, which is now pressing on in both residential and commercial spheres.

The Airfields site has an agreed principle of 725 homes, with the combined total expected across that and Garden City to be 1,400. Also within Airfields, ICT Group last month lodged plans for a tissue making facility.