Tameside ramps up Godley Green

The local authority has lodged an application to establish outline consent for the 2,150-home masterplan, its headline housing project.

Billed as Godley Green Garden Village, the site is west of Hattersley, taking in Green Belt land to the north of Mottram Old Road and Werneth Low Country Park.

The 315-acre project is expected to account for more than a quarter of Tameside’s housing allocation in the Greater Manchester-wide Places for Everyone plan.

In summer. Tameside armed itself with compulsory purchase powers as it looked to assemble the required land. According to a document filed with the application, there are 73 owners and occupiers affected by the development.

Plans have now been submitted by Tameside Council and its planning consultancy Gerald Eve.

These request outline consent for a residential-led mixed-use development also including local centres, a primary school, sports facilities, new vehicle, cycle and pedestrian connections, a bridge to Hattersley, landscaping and accesses from Mottram Old Road.

Planit-IE, Alyn Nichols Associates, KKP, e3p, and Kevin Murray Associates are also on the project team. Pea Green provided a sustainability statement and Mainer Associates an energy statement. Wilde Consulting Engineers aided in flood risk assessment and drainage design, as well as traffic consultancy.

The application site is made up of two large parcels of land, to the north and south of Mottram Old Road.

At 254 acres, the northern part of the site is the larger, and, it is proposed, will be tackled as two villages, eastern and western as split by Godley Brook, with 1,250 homes in the west and 900 in the east.

The western village could also house a local centre, education and sports provision hub situated off the primary access road.

A local centre is also included to the northern part of the eastern village, with a multi-user bridge connection to Hattersley, and sports provision in the south adjacent to Mottram Old Road.

The land to the south of Mottram Old Road is to be used as a sports complex, comprising playing pitches, club house/changing facilities and parking, alongside an area of 47 acres for ecological enhancement.

In its design & access statement, Planit-IE said that “the site presents a once in a generation opportunity to align the land assets of all the Godley Green landowners and Tameside Council’s ambitions for the site, mapping out a direction that best coordinates the investment of resources, people, time, finance and brainpower in ways that will ensure a Garden Village is delivered as envisioned”.

Tameside has Homes England funding support for the project, and last year committed itself to a £2.75m outlay in order to keep the project moving forward rather than risk losing that support.