Villages planned for Lancaster, Knowsley, Cheshire and Cumbria

New garden villages, settlements of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes, are due to be built in four locations across the region with backing from a £6m Government fund.

The four North West locations form part of the first wave of 14 garden villages announced by the Government, totalling 48,000 homes.

The villages are an expansion of the existing garden towns programme, and will have access to a £6m fund over the next two financial years.

This money will be used to unlock the full capacity of sites, providing funding for additional resources and expertise to accelerate development and avoid delays.

The Government also announced today its support for three new garden towns in Aylesbury, Taunton and Harlow & Gilston.

Together with the seven garden towns already announced, the 17 settlements have the combined potential to provide almost 200,000 homes.

These developments are planned as “distinct new places” with their own facilities, rather than extensions to existing urban areas. The garden villages due to be built in the North West are:

  • Halsnead in Knowsley, Merseyside
  • Bailrigg in Lancaster
  • St Cuthberts near Carlisle, Cumbria
  • Handforth in Cheshire East

In addition to funding, the Government said it will provide support in terms of expertise, brokerage and offer of new planning freedoms.

Due to the high level of expressions of interest submitted in July 2016, the Government has made an additional £1m available this year for further development of other garden village proposals.

The Government may run a further call for expressions of interest later this year.

A garden town is a development of more than 10,000 homes. Garden villages are smaller settlements, of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes.

By 2020, more than 25,000 housing starts are planned for garden villages, towns and cities.

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Let us hope the end product fulfils the tempting description of “Garden Village” – and not end up a vast sprawling estate. It is a pity that this concept could not have been applied to the 1000 dwelling estate just approved by CEC at Nantwich, where the riverside location on the edge of the historic market town centre deserved better.

By Jeff Stubbs, Chair Nantwich Civic Society.

With St Helens Council planning another 3 big developments nearby to Halsnead it will just be one big urban sprawling jungle so no thanks and you will never be able to get onto the M62 to commute to Liverpool or Manchester… Needs some joined up thinking!!

By Dorothy Heron

Joined up thinking like a city-region plan for Liverpool Dorothy. Knowsley will do well if it can just emulate Widnes which is looking great on the Halton side of Cronton. I don’t expect these garden villages will be anything like Port Sunlight but we can aspire.

By Altmouth

Handforth Garden Village – sounds lovely, and will be welcome green space for those who will soon be living close by in the 900 home site at Woodford Aerodrome, the 270 homes at Adlington Park, and the 2400 homes on adjoining land in Woodford as set out in the strategic plan.

By Cave Dweller

Great news that the North West has been successful with 4 from the 14 UK locations selected by Government. With careful planning and design these will be great communities for the future. Let’s hope the momentum is there to bring them forward quickly.

By Dan Mitchell, Barton Willmore

What ever happened to the brown site polices where communication links are already catered for,, majority of these developments will engulf greenbelt and create soulless communities.
All for progress but not at the price of surrendering our countryside.

By CBA

It is a testament to the growing importance of the North West to the wider economy that we have four of the these villages.Brownfield sites in Northern cities tend to be in places,people with children don’t want to live.In Manchester,it is a real struggle to get middle class families away from their traditional strongholds.The biggest issue tends to be schools.

By Elephant

This is unbelievable, another case of two councils not communicating with each other , Stockport and Cheshire East. The amount of proposed new homes within 2 miles of Woodford Church is close to 16000 , using green belt land in the majority of cases. The area is already gridlocked , no road infrastructure , no adequate public transport , schools with no capacity. Please councils talk to each other , once you take the greenbelt you will never get it back

By TT

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