As reported last week Royal London has submitted two planning applications to Cheshire East Council for homes at its site on Alderley Road.
The first application is for up to 60 homes on land opposite the Royal London Campus, to the west of Alderley Road and the second application is for 120 homes on the northern part of the campus site - both of which have now been added to the Cheshire East planning portal.
The outline planning application, reference 17/5837M, is seeking permission for a new residential development on The 4.45 hectares site which is owned by Royal London. The land has recently been removed from the Green Belt and is included in the Local Plan with an allocation of 75 dwellings.
Initially, Royal London are proposing to build 60 properties along with access on the northern part of the site, with an area at the south of the site identified for future development of up to 15 additional properties (shaded orange on the second slide above).
Access into the site would be off Alderley Road, by widening the existing entrance point and providing a dedicated right turn lane when travelling south from Wilmslow.
A pedestrian and cyclist route is also suggested through the proposed development along with a new pedestrian crossing north of the site entrance.
The outline planning application, reference 17/5838M, for a residential development, 120 properties, along with the access roads and landscaping on the Royal London campus.
These properties would be a maximum of 4 stories high along the southern boundary and 3 stories elsewhere.
The illustrative plan contains a mix of property types including 2, 3, and 4 bed properties along with 1 and 2 bed apartments.
A new access is proposed off Alderley Road by creating a new entrance point with a dedicated right turn lane, for vehicles travelling from the south.
A spokesperson for Royal London said "Although the masterplans are indicative at this stage in the planning process, a range of housing is envisaged to meet a variety of local needs, delivering the highest quality throughout in keeping with local character and styles and respecting the landscape and heritage strengths of the Campus. One and two bed apartments suitable for first time buyers, or residents seeking to downsize, as well as three and four bed homes for growing families and young professionals, are all expected to be part of the mix."
Despite having been granted planning permission in 2016 for a new office development at their Alderley Road campus, Royal London Group confirmed last month that it is relocating to the Parklands building at Alderley Park.
The planning application can be viewed on the Cheshire East Council website by searching for planning references 17/5837M and 17/5838M. The last date for submitting comments is 21st December and a decision is expected by 16th February 2018.
Both planning applications are currently scheduled to be determined by the Strategic Planning Board on 31st January 2018.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
“ Access to the site has been carefully considered.....................and the most appropriate access point is via the existing entrance off Alderley Road next to the northern lodge building.”
As anyone who uses the road regularly will know, congestion, particularly in the morning and evening rush hours is considerable; if this application goes ahead, then the impact on Alderley Road will be huge. When trucks manoeuvring into the Travis Perkins yard, plus a school bus decanting children are taken into account, it takes little imagination to see that this road is going to be a permanent traffic jam. Another application in this mix is for a hand car wash on the site of the former petrol station – this was rejected, by C.E.C. partly on grounds of traffic congestion, but has now been taken to appeal by the applicant.
There has been increasing anxiety as this development has grown – initially the site was taken out of greenbelt because Royal London claimed a pressing need for an up to date new building, and extra car parking for an increased workforce, promising 450 new jobs in addition to the 900 currently employed. Having achieved planning approval, Royal London are now in the process of selling the site and moving to Alderley Park.
Those who use this route may wish to look at the plans and register their comments by using the following website The application numbers are 17/5837M for the west and 17/5838M for the east.
The Local Plan presents the whole of site 54 as one for suitable development including housing, offices and an hotel. But there is a school on this site too, with an urgent need to expand. With this school comes a serious traffic and parking problem not dissimilar to the queuing on Alderley Road. There is an obvious solution thst needs to be drummed home to CEC - the whole of site 54 needs to be served by accessing from the A34 bypass.
I will be happy to hear from anyone who can point out a flaw in this. Wilmslow is close to being gridlocked and all we hear about is the urgent need to build more and more houses and more and more offices. How about some joined up writing and some forward planning for infrastructure?
Getting cross again!