Co-op meet Club to discuss Grove Lane development
Members of the Supporters’ Co-operative board recently visited Edgeley Park to find out about the proposed housing development on land owned by Mark Stott in Cheadle Hulme.
Eddie Smith
Eddie introduced himself and explained his work with Mark Stott and the Vita Group on various development related issues.
Extent of development
The site is bounded to the north by The Pointing Dog pub and an area of hardstanding used as a coach park, to the east by South Park and to the west and south by an existing hedge line. It is important to note that the yard currently used for coach parking is included in the area to be developed because it is key to the planning case for this land to be designated as Grey Belt.
History
The Green Belt site was bought by Mark Stott two to three years ago with the intention of using it for a possible home for his Pro-Football Academy business. Since that time the Government have changed the planning rules in an attempt to combat the housing shortage. These changes, amongst other things, introduced the concept of Grey Belt, defined as land in the Green Belt comprising previously developed land that does not strongly contribute to the core purposes of the Green Belt.
Who will benefit?
- The club: Mark Stott has committed that all of the net surplus from the project will be invested into the Club’s Development Projects and into Club related community initiatives. Possible projects include improvements to Edgeley Park and the work required the convert the Club’s Academy from Category 3 to Category 2 at Stockport Sports Village (SSV).
- Futher Education: Eddie also stressed that Mark Stott’s great passion is the education aspect of his involvement with the Club with work in all of Stockports Primary and High Schools along with the Stockport County Further Education college programmes delivered at SSV. The FE work will soon be expanded to deliver a new Degree in Football Coaching at SSV with Manchester Metropolitan University validating the Degree.
- The Borough: There’s an undeniable shortage of affordable housing in Stockport and in and around Cheadle Hulme in particular.
- Locally: The small roundabout by the Pointing Dog is a massive bottleneck during rush hour. As part of the development, this will be extensively remodelled to improve the traffic flow and ensure that the new houses don’t make matters worse. This will be a big undertaking with costs to match and will involve a land swap arrangement with the owners of The Pointing Dog as it will eat into their existing car park. There are plans, as part of the work, to improve South Park and the land to the west of it.
Affordable Housing
All the 126 proposed houses will be “affordable” and there will be a mixture of forty-one 2 bed, sixty-five 3 bed and twenty 4 bed designs. Forty-nine will be available for social rent and the remainder on a “shared ownership” model.
Great Places, a housing association that provides 19,000+ homes mostly in North-West England and Yorkshire will own and manage the 126 homes, and Stonebond, who are the Contractors to build the development, are already on board with the project.
The Planning Application
The pre-application discussions with the Council have been going on for nine months.
The key planning issue to be addressed is the case to take the land in question out of the designated ‘Green Belt’. The Planning Application presents two arguments the first being that this land should be designated as being Grey Belt.
If this is not agreed by the Council then the Planning Application seeks to demonstrate “very special circumstances” to justify the land being taken out of the “Green Belt”. Such “very special circumstances” would include the affordable housing proposals, the need for housing in Stockport, the traffic improvements, and the improvements to the open space to the west will all count towards this.
If the Council’s Planning Committee refuse planning permission the Club may take that decision to a planning appeal.
The planning application has now been made but it will take a number of weeks for the Council to process it and place the details of the application on the Council’s Planning Portal.
Objections
The Club have held a public consultation on the proposals. In term of feedback some local residents are against the development. They cite concerns about extra traffic, the loss of Green Belt, the influx of people who will move into the housing and pressure on local infrastructure.