Plans back in for Furness Quay homes

Fortis Developments has resubmitted its proposals for 593 apartments at Furness Quay to Salford City Council, after an earlier application’s surprise refusal by the council’s planning committee last month.

The developer is planning the office-to-residential conversion of Furness House and Custom House, adding six storeys and four storeys respectively.

There are also plans for two new-build blocks, totalling 13 storeys and 27 storeys. Overall, the project totalled 593 homes, negotiated down by Salford City Council planners from an initial proposal of 750. Bowman Riley is the architect.

In January, Salford councillors rejected the scheme due to issues with height, lack of green space, and too much parking.

Under the new application, the height and density of the project remains the same, however changes have been made to landscaping, the window arrangements, and parking has been reduced from 108 spaces to 60 spaces.

The proposals now incorporate a plot of land to the south, previously used for parking, which will now be used for public realm.

In a letter accompanying the new application, planning adviser Lambert Smith Hampton said that Fortis would not be appealing Salford City Council’s decision on the earlier scheme, as the developer wants to avoid “a potentially lengthy and adversarial appeal situation”.

A spokesperson for Fortis said: “Fortis have worked with the council to address their concerns relating to the previous planning application. The concerns were mainly related to the public realm and landscaping within the scheme. We have now made minor amendments to the scheme to address these raised issues which formed part of positive discussions with the council and as such a revised planning application has now been submitted and we are very hopeful of gaining approval.”

Fortis is already working on another apartment scheme in Salford, at Adelphi Wharf.