Salford set to rubber-stamp Great Places deal
The city’s mayor Paul Dennett will next week be asked to approve disposal of two sites to housing group Great Places in order to deliver supported and social housing in Walkden and Little Hulton.
According to documents released ahead of a property and regeneration briefing to be held on Monday 24 August, Great Places intends to bring forward 32 homes in total, 20 of them supported housing and 12 social rented homes.
Terms have been agreed in principle for a deal that would see the council receive £260,700 for the two sites. Approval is also being sought to enter into a release of restrictive covenants and mines and mineral reservations with Peel L&P, the terms of which have not been made available.
The site at Crompton Street, Walkden is public open space, which formerly housed a drill hall. The disposal of this site has been advertised locally, bringing forth responses raising issues including the loss of green space, historic flooding, highway safety and parking, anti-social behaviour and noise and air pollution.
However, the site is not within the council’s green space strategy supplementary planning document and is classed as informal open space. Officers added that the issues raised can be mitigated against through the planning process.
The creation of 12 social rented homes would, said the report, provide an estimated £42,000 a year in council tax receipts and around £210,000 of New Homes Bonus.
The Crompton Street site will provide housing for 14 people with complex needs, across 12 homes, four of which will be wheelchair-accessible. A further five homes will be built at this site. At Highfield Road in Little Hulton, space will be created in shared housing and two self-contained flats for eight people with severe learning disabilities, autism or both; with a further seven social rented housing of two or three bedroom houses to be built, a number of which are earmarked to be wheelchair accessible.
In all, the accommodation across the two sites should provide space for up to 76 people.
