Stockport to break Springmount Mill deadlock
Carpenter Investments’ long-stalled PRS development in Edgeley could move forward this week if the council’s central area committee gives it the go-ahead.
Stockport Council planning officers have recommended the committee approves the redevelopment of the former Springmount Mill site, meaning it will then go before the authority’s main committee next month.
Consent for the 202-home development would pave the way for construction to start more than four years after Carpenter first drew up plans for the site.
The developer put forward redevelopment proposals for the former Springmount Mill site in 2017 and was granted approval for 175 apartments across three blocks the following year.
Damage to the former mill, part of which was to be retained under the approved plans, then prompted a rethink of the scheme.
The developer put forward revised plans for 202 apartments across three blocks in December 2020.
This updated version of the development involved the complete demolition of the existing damaged structures on the site. Demolition work is complete and the site is clear.
In the two years since the revised application was submitted to Stockport Council, the developer has been working to find a way around viability issues.
As well as the cost of demolishing the mill and remediating the former paint bleach works, Carpenter has been locked in talks with the council over affordable housing provision.
Carpenter claims that meeting the 20-25% affordable provision normally requested by the council in this area of Stockport would make the scheme unviable.
Stockport has agreed that the “non-provision of affordable housing on the site is in principle considered to be acceptable”.
Other solutions to the viability constraints are being explored.
A report to the council’s Central Stockport area committee last December said that the authority was looking at funding options to unlock the site, via Homes England or other means.
