Salboy swaps Castle Irwell apartments for houses

Calderpeel Architects is drawing up plans to change the third phase of the Salford neighbourhood, ditching the previously proposed 237 flats in favour of 104 houses.

Developer Salboy said the changes are being made in response to public feedback regarding concerns over the apartments.

Additional flood modelling has also shown that the site for phase three would not present as dire of a flood risk as previously believed and that any flood risk could be managed. This makes the area safe to build houses, according to the consultation documents.

Proposed layout for phase three of Castle Irwell. Credit: via Salboy

Located on the site of the former Manchester Racecourse, Castle Irwell consists of 36 acres off Cromwell Road. Salboy purchased the land in 2019 from the University of Salford, which had shut down its student village on the site in 2015.

The other two phases of the £120m Castle Irwell project have sold out, with nearly all of the homes going to owner-occupiers. Construction on the first phase’s 157 homes is complete, while work is under way for the second phase’s 106 homes.

The homes of the proposed third phase would replicate the house types of those earlier two stages.

Salboy aims to submit plans for the revised phase three in a few weeks.

If the application is approved, there would be a total of 367 houses on the Castle Irwell site – much less than the 500 homes that have outline planning consent.

Salboy said that main contractor Domis could begin construction on the third phase before the end of the year.

Euan Kellie Property Solutions is the planning consultant for Castle Irwell.