PLANNING | Manchester modular homes in, car park out
Manchester City Council’s August planning meeting has a varied agenda, with consent expected for the first Yo! flats in New Islington and a prime office refurbishment, while 170 homes and a 2,400-space car park are marked for rejection.
Officer’s recommendations are as follows:
APPROVE
Yo! Company, the brand behind the Yo! Sushi restaurant chain, has proposed 24 modular apartments in New Islington, designed by Glenn Howells Architects.
Yo! Company has been working on plans for pre-fabricated residential buildings for a number of years, focusing on maximising the use of space in apartments by incorporating pull-down beds, with concealed cupboards and dining spaces.
The six-storey project in New Islington will be the company’s first Yo! Home scheme, and if approved will be built on a plot on the corner of Old Mill Street and Lampwick Street, next to Urban Splash’s Stubbs Mill office.
In Manchester’s Civic Quarter, Fore Partnership’s refurbishment and extension of the 48,000 sq ft London Scottish House into an 80,000 sq ft office is a reworking of a previously approved 175,000 sq ft.
Titan Investors sold the building to Fore at the end of last year for £13m. Titan had gained planning permission in 2014 for a 175,000 sq ft redevelopment designed by Eric Parry, to be known as the Assembly building. In turn, when Titan bought the office from the National Asset Management Agency and Walls Developments in 2012, the site had been earmarked for a 220,000 sq ft tower.
Fore’s architect is TP Bennett.
REFUSE
Meanwhile, at the same meeting two large schemes are recommended for refusal. Parkleigh Developments has proposed 170 homes at the former Godfrey Erman Playing Fields in Abbey Hey. The scheme has received local opposition as it would result in the loss of green space, and the area’s councillors also submitted strong objections.
Car park operator Peter Ashley’s plans for a multi-storey car park with 2,400 spaces at Irwin Drive near to Manchester Airport also looks set to be rejected. The company secured a £1.35m loan facility from Barclays last year to fund the purchase of the site, which was to be used as overflow parking for people using airport.
However, the airport’s response to the application was to stress that the parking was not “an airport sanctioned facility”, and that “there is no sound justification that this car park is required”, particularly as it would increase the concentration of people in a public safety zone.
The application received 97 letters of objection, and petition against it has gained more than 1,000 signatures.
Manchester City Council’s planning committee will meet on 25 August.
Hate that rubbish proposed by Midland Hotel….Is that all we worth in Manchester?
By Schwyz
I see Croydon DWP next to the Midland is stil going ahead. Yo is interesting. Next to the old Ancoats hospital too. Looking good that part of Manchester nowadays.
By Elephant
The Yo Home! scheme looks really good. The amount of development in New Islington and Miles Platting along the Rochdale Canal and Victoria Mill Park is phenomenal. It’s shaping up to be an attractive neighbourhood!
By New Islington
Have a feeling the Yo Home scheme will be cheap, flimsy and overpriced. Remains to be seen of course, but I won’t be surprised if there’s a hefty premium for what you actually get.
The area is still pretty dodgy – regular shootings immediately adjacent to the site, thefts from the Chips car park and open intravenous drug use on the Ashton canal/around the Chips building.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves with the attractiveness of this neighbourhood.
By zebith
Those are the sort of issues that our cities have zebith, especially in the north. Doesn’t mean we can’t move on.
By Petula
Indeed – that’s why I say lets not get ahead of ourselves. New Islington has some potential, but personally I feel it is a bit oversold. I’ll be very interested to see what prices Mr Woodroffe is asking for his origami boxes located in needlesville
By zebith