Social providers seek Knowsley success
Onward Homes’ plans for 88 residences at Halsnead Garden Village and Livv Housing’s replacement of demolished tower blocks with 79 homes in Kirkby have both been lodged with the council.
Halsnead Farm
At Halsnead, Onward and its contractor partnership Starship Build are looking to secure a consent for 88 affordable homes south of the M62.
DK Architects and Layer Studio are working on the scheme, along with Eden, Amenity Tree and Curtins.
Onward’s intended site is currently home to Halsnead Farm, and is accessed from Fox’s Bank Lane.
The site is located south of the M62, less than a mile to the east of Junction 6, and on the other side of the motorway from Taylor Wimpey’s larger Fox’s Bank Lane scheme.
Wholly affordable, the development now lodged will see Onward in place as registered provider, with the scheme offering a mix of tenures across 51 houses and 37 flats, delivered to various design styles.
Apartment blocks form a gateway at the Fox’s Bank Lane entrance. Credit: planning documents
As set out in DK’s design & access statement, the development site plays an important role in knitting together the northern part of the masterplan area to the Cronton Colliery Park countryside area to the south.
Tarbock Island, to the north of the M62, is the main area of residential development. Other developers working at Halsnead Garden Village are Bloor Homes, Vistry and Your Housing Group.
In all, Taylor Wimpey is responsible for 800+ homes at Halsnead Garden Village, while Tritax Symmetry has consent for 1m sq ft of industrial space south of the M62, to the west of the Onward/Starship site.
Gaywood Green
At its Gaywood Green regeneration site in Kirkby, Livv is working with GWP Architecture. The brownfield site is now cleared – four tower blocks having been pulled down in 2023 – and registered provider Livv wants to deliver 79 homes.
The site, off Broad Lane, is described as 20-minute walk south-east of Kirkby town centre. Livv previously took the site’s 256 flats, which the organisation controlled in its previous incarnation as Knowsley Housing Trust, through the demolition process.
Now on the table are 79 homes, offering a blend of social rent, shared ownership and rent-to-buy. There will six housing types, with the buildings, of three and four storeys, around a village green.
The proposed mix provides for circa 79 new dwellings in six different typologies, with the expected make up being:
- 15 two-bedroom houses
- 12 three-bedroom houses
- 3 four-bedroom houses
- 6 one-bedroom cottage flats
- 6 two-bedroom cottage apartments
- 37 one/two-bedroom apartments
Arbtech, Redmore Environmental and Curtins are all advising.
Both projects have been validated on Knowsley’s planning portal. The Halsnead reference is 25/00617/FUL and the Kirkby project 25/00660/FUL.
