Plans for two new retail parks on adjacent sites in Handforth are now scheduled to be determined alongside one another at next month's Strategic Planning Committee meeting.
Orbit Developments' application to demolish the existing warehouses at the junction of Earl Road and Epsom Avenue and replace them with a parade of six units and a standalone single storey unit was recommended for refusal by the planning officer because the loss of employment land is considered to significantly outweigh the benefits of the proposal.
The scheme includes five unit for non-food retail purposes and two units are to be used for non-food retail or sandwich shop. The plans also includes the creation of a car park with 183 spaces and a new access from Earl Road. The adjacent offices are to be retained. If approved Orbit says the development would create 290 additional jobs.
However, at a meeting on Wednesday, 22nd March, committee members decided to defer the decision until their next meeting so that this application (planning reference 16/5678M) could be looked at with a similar application on the opposite side of Earl Road.
The second application is from Alderley Edge-based retail property developer Consolidated Property Group who has entered into an agreement with Cheshire East Council to purchase the 15-acre site next to the Handforth Dean retail park for a retail-led mixed-use scheme.
The application, which was submitted in January 2016 and expected to be determined by April 2016, is for Phase Two and Three of the development comprising of retail units, cafes and restaurants, a gym and a hotel. Phase One of this development is now complete with the Next store having opened last year.
The second phase of the scheme consists of a number of stand-alone units, including restaurants, fast food and coffee drive throughs. The scheme includes two 4,000 sq ft restaurants with 45 parking spaces, a two storey drive through with 44 parking spaces and two single storey drive throughs with 42 parking spaces.
The retail element of the scheme forms the third phase of CPG's masterplan for the site and consists of 340,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space, along with a 66 bed hotel. The two and three storey retail units vary in size from 5,000 sq ft to 35,000 sq ft. They are arranged in an L shape around 424 parking spaces.
In total the scheme includes 557 car parking spaces, 39 of which will be disability spaces, 60 cycle spaces and 6 electric charging points. If approved CPG says the development could create up to 1,200 jobs.
Both applications are currently scheduled to be determined at the Strategic Planning Meeting on Wednesday 19th April.
The planning applications can be viewed on the Cheshire East Council website by searching for planning reference 16/5678M (Orbit) and 16/0138M (CPG).
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Chris - A narrow strip of land between the A34, other superstores and warehousing wouldn't be a very attractive place to live, even for a first time buyer. It's a far more appropriate location for a retail park.
The town centre shopping model is outdated. Consumers want parking and large shops with a lot of choice. These superstores are better placed that the high street to compete with internet sellers. Even if there is no net gain of jobs, I don't see this as a bad thing. We need to stop being so hung up on comparing the high street to the 70s or 80s - a thing to which it will never return. We need to accept the idea that the high street and the space needed by shops and businesses in town centres in general will contract, and that this space can return to residential, which in many cases it was long before the shops and offices arrived. We've already seen some of this happen in Wilmslow.
It's more jobs shifting retail imports, growing consumer debt and generally failing to reduce our balance of payments and national debt.
The recipe for disaster continues apace.
No innovation, no exports. A self serving spiral of failure.
Every town should have a science/technology park. One shopping mall to every 10 innovation centres. Go see Silicon Valley. I worked there.
I don't understand this obsession with green grocers and butchers you and others have on here. When was the last time you saw a green grocer or a butchers on most high streets, never mind the Trafford Centre? The fact is most people don't want to shop in them. They haven't been killed off by greedy landlords or business rates - they've been killed off by a changing society. I'd bet a green grocer couldn't make a shop on Grove Street work in the long term even if the rent and business rates were zero.
For example, the office block next to the Jaguar dealer is currently being converted into flats. The council offices next to Wilmslow Health Centre are currently being replaced by old people's flats. Permission to build houses on the former dental surgery near Sainsburys was applied for and refused. The old Ned Yates site is having houses built on it.
Like Terry I know the Far East well. In Hong Kong, where land is in short supply, real estate is in a constant state of change because it has to be responsive.
As for new large retail units, we seem to be preferring smaller ones with personal service or using the internet more often. Where is future proof planning?
I'm intrigued how you know there will be no bus service to something which hasn't even been approved to be built yet? There certainly is a bus stop by the petrol station at Handforth Dean, which is all of about 200m from where this would be.
As for the railway, I'm sure you know Handforth Dean is within easy walking distance of Handforth station. This would only be a few yards further. It would be nearer to a railway station than the vast majority of UK shops.
These two large retail parks will be the death knell for a wide area's in town retailers.
Think Trafford Centre - it was extolled as the next best thing to sliced bread, would reinvigorate the localised retailing sector.
Tesult? Altrincham, a once very vibrant shopping town is now a retail waste-land. Stretford, Urmston, Davyhulme etc have all been destroyed.
We've seen it all before, we know what will happen. Therefore CEC should be demanding, yes demanding, that Orbit & CPG pay upfront millions of pounds to the local, neighbouring town centres to enable them all to do the necessary long overdue upgrades & redevelopment work needed to enable them to compete. - to create free car parking spaces, public transport services, covered shopping areas etc LONG BEFORE THESE developers commence their own soul destroying projects.
We had the people say when Handforth dean opened it would be the death
Of Handforth village it would be a ghost town with tumble weed blowing through,
The only two shops we have lost are the butcher and the green grocery
Which you can get in the spar,I have my lunch in the village most days
and nearly ever parking space is full of cars on the front none of which are long term parking,and the road is always busy all day long,
So I cannot see why the new shops cannot get the go ahead because there
Are no houses that over looks them it's just industry that is round it so I don't see what the problem is.
So whilst Handforth Dean is not far away for me as a fit person, it is a much harder walk for others. And what about traffic congestion and cutting carbon emissions? Are the developers going to sponsor better station access and more buses near them?
Nice to see that Grove Street will become poundshop land. Saves me going to Wythenshawe for stuff I can't buy locally.
As for disabled access to Handforth Station, Network Rail and the train companies clearly don't care about this and have had plenty of opportunities to do something about it over the years without doing anything. This is hardly the fault of the retailers or developers.