YHG lines up 380 Northwich homes

Also recommended for approval are the overhaul of Winsford town centre, plans by Peel’s energy arm and Bridgemere’s redevelopment of Christleton Hall.

In the largest of the proposals to go before Cheshire West & Chester Council’s planning committee on Tuesday 5 April, Nuvu, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Your Housing Group, has put forward plans for 380 homes on the eastern edge of Northwich.

The 33-acre Hargreaves Road site sits to the north of Middlewich Road and was formerly partly occupied by the ICI Wade chemical works, and also has some areas classed as floodplain: in all, around 23 acres are developable.

In addition, part of the site formerly housed a brickworks. Site remediation is already underway.

Plans for the site, which sits to the west of Griffiths Park, have been scaled down from the 395 homes originally proposed. In all, 70% of the homes proposed are affordable, with the remaining 30% split roughly equally between private rent and open market sale.

The professional team includes WSP, APD, Wardell Armstrong and Vectos.

Winsford town centre

Following consultation in 2021, plans were filed in January for the first phase of the town centre revamp, with key features including two retail units totalling 26,000 sq ft, a drive-thru coffee unit and the relocation of war memorials.

Around £10m has been secured from the Levelling Up Fund for the project.

The hybrid application also seeks outline consent for a creative hub. In the longer term, the council intends to redevelop the Winsford Cross shopping centre, which it bought in 2018. AHR Architects and Avison Young are working with CWAC.

Around 34,000 sq ft of new buildings are proposed in Winsford. Credit: via planning documents

Land off North Road, Ellesmere Port

Two applications covering plans on a Peel-owned site opposite Vauxhall Motors are to be considered. The site previously housed a Conoco oil depot and requires remediation.

In the first application, Dunton Environmental proposes a sol processing plant, for the treatment of hazardous soils.

In the second, Peel NRE has made a hybrid application, with full consent sought for a gas engine electricity-generating plant and outline consent sought for 65,000 sq ft of industrial/warehousing space.

Christleton Hall, Chester

Formerly home to the University of Law, which twice saw plans to redevelop it knocked back, the 6.8-acre site is now owned by Bridgemere, headed by Redrow founder Steve Morgan.

Plans were lodged last year for the conversion of the listed 18th-century hall into 18 apartments, with 24 detached homes and a two-storey, 7,800 sq ft office building for the Steve Morgan Foundation also in the plans.

Professionals working on the project include planning consultant Avison Young, landscaper Randall Thorp, HB Architects, PAD, E3P, Trevor Bridge Associates, MET Geo Environmental, TEP, Betts Associates, Hepworth Acoustics and Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture.

Castle Green Homes and Boueoak Estates are development partners on the project.

The hall dates back to the 1750s. Credit: planning documents