Great Places, Breck start £24m Stockport homes

The 106-unit affordable housing scheme on the site of the former Cranford Golf Centre in Heaton Mersey is targeted to complete in 2024, its developers say.

Construction began at the end of last month at the site in the Stockport suburb that has lain vacant since 2014. The site consists of around six acres that previously housed the golf driving range and associated buildings to the west, together with the grassland of the driving range to the east.

Social housing provider Great Places Housing Group is building the £24m project as part of the Stockport Housing Partnership, which it became part of following its merger with Equity Housing Group last year.

The project is being built in partnership with Breck Homes, which carried out remedial work at the site enabling construction to begin.

The development – which won planning consent from Stockport Council last autumn – was proposed by developer M20 Property, which submitted an application in October for 106 homes at the former driving range on Harwood Road, close to the junction with Didsbury Road.

The approved scheme is to provide 106 new homes, including a mix of two-, three-, and four-bed affordable houses and apartments for social rent through Great Places, shared ownership through Plumlife, and a collection of five homes for market sale through developer Cube Homes.

At the time, the planning application stated that Great Places had been selected as the registered provider to deliver the homes.

Around 70 objections to the scheme were made by local residents, mainly relating to traffic and transport, however the council concluded that the project was sustainable.

Under the plans, each house was to feature two parking spaces and each flat one space, in line with local planning policy. The professional team included Ludlam Associates and architect Bernard Taylor Partnership.

Matthew Harrison, chief executive of Great Places, described the development as the company’s “first in the borough of Stockport” since the merger with Equity.

“Great Places is committed to addressing the housing crisis and this new development will provide much needed affordable homes for a range of customers,” he added.

Mayor of Stockport, Cllr Adrian Nottingham, added: “This site has been ripe for development for several years and we are delighted to have work starting.

“The new affordable homes will provide families with a great place to live and benefit the local economy with an influx of new customers. There is a need for this type of housing in Stockport.”

And Andy Garnett, director of Breck Homes, said he was looking forward to seeing the scheme progress, “given the multi-tenure nature of the development”.