PLANNING | Church expansion squeaks through

The addition of a link building and seven-storey car park at !Audacious Church was narrowly approved, while Lidl’s plans at Mocha Parade sailed through with ease at the Salford Council Meeting on 29 July.

The !Audacious project was backed by three votes, with two opposed and two abstentions.

Unsurprisingly for such a large expansion – a five-storey, 38,000 sq ft link building plus 364 parking spaces – opposition was vocal, with residents of the neighbouring Alto building among those in opposition.

Approved

!Audacious Church, Trinity Way

Credit: David Cox Architects

Developer: !Audacious Church  

Architect: David Cox Architects 

Planner: Euan Kellie Property Solutions 

Amended proposals for the church include a 38,000 sq ft link building with offices, toilets and other facilities. That building will connect the existing !Audacious Church, a single-storey steel building off Bury Street, with the proposed 364-space car park. 

A smaller, two-storey extension to the rear of the church is proposed to provide additional storage, according to the planning application.  

Since opening 13 years ago, the church has become established as an important part of the community, welcoming more than 5,500 people across three Sunday services each week and setting up a range of community programmes. It currently has a capacity of 1,400. The church’s success has led to it needing to rent parking space from the Deva centre.

While objectors and members alike praised the good the church does, one member questioned whether it would be more appropriate for the committee to examine the two parts separately.

Urban Green is the landscape architect for the scheme.

Mocha Parade Lidl

Developer: Lidl UK 

Architect: Space Architects 

Planner: Rapleys 

No objections were raised to the plans by Lidl for a supermarket at Mocha Parade, which one councillor described as “one of Salford’s biggest eyesores” adding that such a scheme has “been a long time coming”.

Demolition of the vacant retail parade began earlier this month, as Lidl prepared to start building a 13,500 sq ft supermarket on the site. 

Salford, which recently refused another Lidl project just over a mile away off Cromwell Road, selected Lidl as its preferred retail partner for Mocha Parade last January and plans for the store were lodged earlier this year. 

The site is bounded by Sussex Street, Lower Broughton Road and Great Clowes Street, close to the River Irwell. 

Lidl also proposes creating a wildflower meadow to act as a flood basin in the south-west corner of the site. 

Countryside Properties had previously advanced plans for a district centre as part of its housebuilding programme in the area.