Third time lucky, hopefully

In a long-running saga of development proposals for a flattened Wigan industrial estate, dating back to 2014, proposal three promises 100% affordable housing.

All 155 homes planned for a former industrial estate near Wigan would be affordable, according to the latest proposals in a long-running saga.

The plans for affordable housing on part of the Bradley Hall Trading Estate in Standish which was ‘flattened’ four years ago is the third proposal for the site.

It comes after plans for 148 homes were approved by Wigan council in 2014, followed by a second application for 163 homes on the site approved in 2018.

But these outline planning applications – which were never acted upon – only committed to making up to 25 pc of the new housing development affordable.

The latest proposal for the site by Torus Developments, one of the largest housing associations in the North West, would see 155 affordable homes built.

Standish Voice, the village’s neighbourhood forum which objected to previous plans for the site, is supportive of the scheme, according to the developer.

A spokesman for the community group said members will be studying the full planning application first before offering its views to the local authority.

He said: “When planning permission was first granted by Wigan council for this site more than five years ago, it was a huge blow to the economy of the village.

“Half of its industrial estate was flattened and businesses lost.

“We would have wanted employment use to return to this site but, if that is not possible, the provision of 100 pc affordable homes is much better than the market priced ones that have been proposed in the past.

“Some people are being priced out of Standish, despite the large number of homes being built here, and a development such as this will mitigate that.”

Around half of the new homes would be three-bedroom terraced or semi-detached dwellings with 31 four-bedroom properties of the same type.

A further 40 two-bedroom homes are also proposed with a mix of apartments, bungalows, terraced and semi-detached dwellings, according to the plans.

There would also be 10 one-bedroom apartments built in the development.

Nearly half of the homes would be available for affordable rent, but most of the properties would be offered as part of shared ownership or rent to buy schemes.

Source: Manchester Evening News