Partners table plans for 6.5m sq ft North Manchester employment park
Russell LDP and Harworth Group have submitted what is understood to be one of the largest single planning applications ever seen in the North, seeking permission from Bury and Rochdale councils for the nationally significant Northern Gateway.
The Northern Gateway Development Vehicle has drawn up outline plans for the first 6.5m sq ft of workspace at the 1,600-acre borough-straddling employment site, located at the intersection of the M60, M62 and M66.
- Learn more about this project at Place North West’s Industrial & Logistics conference in Manchester next week
The mammoth plot forms part of the wider Atom Valley Mayoral Development Zone, which includes 420 acres at Kingsway Business Park and another 500 at Stakehill.
Overall, Atom Valley will deliver 17m sq ft of employment space.
The submission of plans for Northern Gateway follows the approval of a supplementary planning document for the site, which overall will deliver 13m sq ft of the space at Atom Valley.
Russell and Harworth’s application also includes proposals for supporting infrastructure and amenities, such as retail and leisure space, a hotel and landscaped green open spaces, all connected by a network of travel routes.
Turley is advising on planning and The Harris Partnership is the architect.
Helen Hartley, planning associate director at Russell LDP, said: “This is a major milestone in delivering a nationally important employment destination in the North West.
“Northern Gateway is a transformative opportunity, many years in the making, that will create thousands of jobs and bring lasting benefits to the local area and wider region. With sustainable design at its core, our masterplan will create a thriving environment of high-quality employment units, transport and active travel routes and large areas of new, publicly accessible parkland attracting leading local, national and international employers.”
Lynda Shillaw, chief executive at Harworth Group, added: “Northern Gateway will transform the North West and its economy. Focussed on advanced manufacturing, industrial and logistics, and emerging sectors, it will provide a catalyst for growth, elevating the potential of the North West for both existing businesses to expand and new national and international investment in the region.”
Northern Gateway is capable of supporting up to 20,000 jobs overall and will contribute £630m GVA to the regional economy each year, according to the partners.
What will it be a gateway to?
By Bob
If this attracts the right kind of tech businesses and industry it could be a game changer for this part of Greater Manchester. I hope it’s built with good public transport including tram and train links and doesn’t just rely on the motorway links. Good transport links to Manchester city centre and the airport are essential.
By Anonymous
A huge logistics warehouse was built in Chadderton, it’s still empty, the old BAE site in Middleton is subsidised by the Council to get companies in the huge site. Who says anyone wants to do that much business here in the first place.
By Alan
There is no mention at this stage whether it will be on brown field land, but knowing the area concerned I assume this is green belt. The existing Stake Hill site already has empty units on it as does the new commercial site of Broadway in Oldham. All for development if there are companies ready and waiting to move in but this is not the case.
By David Brock
Alan, the big shed in Chadderton let to Iceland??
There are no incentives at BAE, the site will be redeveloped to create new state of the art buildings with high ESG credentials for occupying companies bringing new jobs to the area. I’m struggling to see the problem with this.
By Anonymous
What’s being proposed at the Northern Gateway is not just more bog standard wear housing and commercial units but a hub for new tech industries.
By Anonymous
It will be interesting to see what use classes are applied for and if consented how it will promoted to tie in the advanced manufacturing and emerging sectors rather than just be a big logistics park like Omega,Warrington has become. We need jobs that can inspire the next generation and be able to push Greater Manchester forward in economic growth and for us not to see Atom Valley become a typical distribution point.
By Anonymous
How much of this will end up being advanced manufacturing and industrial, and how much will end up being the usual big box distribution warehouses staffed by insecure agency workers on minimum wage?
Yes there’s the usual argument that any job created is a good, but this scheme has been massively hyped, there’s plenty of big boxes going up everywhere else, and there is something to be said for making sure the public funding and attention going into this results in genuinely high-quality jobs that might not locate in GM otherwise, wealth created and retained locally, and contributes to a balanced mixed economy.
Signs of a major pre-let might be an encouraging sign.
By Anonymous