A parcel of land located opposite the Royal London campus and west of Alderley Road, which was released from the green belt in order to assist the Council in achieving a five year supply of housing, has been put on the market.
In March 2018, Royal London were granting planning permission for up to 60 homes on the 9.1 acre site, which is now referred to as 'Westlands'.
Mike Brassington, Director of Residential Development at Colliers International, said "Westlands represents an excellent opportunity for a housebuilder to acquire a 'ready to go' site in a desirable and well-established residential area.
"Being generally level and rectangular in shape the site naturally lends itself to development and will be attractive to housebuilders, whilst the prominent road frontage makes for a highly accessible site from both a construction and occupational perspective."
Brassington continued "Fulshaw Park is located within walking distance from the highly desirable town centre of Wilmslow, which boasts a wide range of local amenities including excellent schools as well as high-end retail and leisure facilities. The site's prominence on Alderley Road, the 'southern gateway' to Wilmslow, means it also benefits from proximity to Alderley Edge; an equally desirable town within Cheshire's 'Golden Triangle'."
Colliers is also advising Royal London on a redevelopment/disposal strategy for the wider Fulshaw Park campus, following Royal London's announcement that it is to relocate to nearby Alderley Park by 2021.
Royal London were also granted planning permission in 2016 for a new office development at their Alderley Road campus. However, in October 2017 the company announced it would be moving out of Wilmslow, from their current site at Alderley Road to Alderley Park.
The wider Fulshaw Park site will be redeveloped to create a 'living campus' incorporating 17,000 sq m of new office space, suitable for occupiers of varying sizes, with up to 1,100 car parking spaces and the creation of new pedestrian and cycle routes. The northern part of the site has outline planning permission for a further 120 homes.
Comments
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Not really a surprise and the very best of luck to them !
But the previous administration [and booted out cllrs concerned- I wont list them ], who removed this land from green belt protection should hang their heads in shame, even now, when in public. You weren't even hoodwinked just willing participants to commercial profit.
So yet again we have a site up for development under the guise of meeting housing supply outlined in Cheshire East’s master plan, despite the fact there are more than enough brownfield and infill sites in and around Wilmslow that would more than meet the supply needs - it’s just easier and lazier to rip up a field or two !!!
So ignore all the locals who’ve objected and raised serious concerns over the traffic issues this road already has at peak times and not to mention the continued flooding the road experiences which developing out this site would make even worse. This site should be left as green belt and farmland.
So we have
1.The site detailed in this article with planning permission for housing.
2. The RL campus site with planning permission for 17,000 sm of office space plus the 11000 sm of top grade office space which they are vacating.
3. The site east of the railway line/ west of the bypass with planning permission for 17000 sm of offices.
To set the dimensions of these proposed office developments into perspective, the playing surface at Old Trafford is 7000 sm.
So Wilmslow has 45000 sm of speculative office investment in this small area. Under preCovid space standards, this would house over 5000 employees. We also have the proposed residential development.
These would be new jobs to Wilmslow but, from what we now see, none of these developments are likely to proceed in the near future. It seems the owners are looking for a short term return rather than waiting for the market to revive - whenever that may be.
And the delayed developments will mean there is no business rates / domestic rates revenues in the foreseeable future.
I totally agree with your sentiments but I think you are aiming at the wrong target with the current CEC.
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@Ian Forde-Smith, as someone who has been fighting against this for several years (I have a Covenant with RL which forbids the erection of any building, for all time on those agricultural fields) I cannot agree that Cheshire East Council ARE a disgrace but when the previous administration voted to remove Green Belt protection they WERE a disgrace.
Several Wilmslow Councillors (all now out of office) plus the Alderley Councillor (also long gone) voted against an amendment to the Local Plan which would have kept several pieces of land around Alderley and Wilmslow in the Green Belt. They voted with their Party and against the wishes of the electorate. That is why we now have so many Independent Parish, Town and CE Councillors.
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It really is a shame that we could not get more caring people involved at the time.
Planning permission for this was granted under the previous Conservative administration when they had the majority vote on all Committees.
Both the Royal London site, and the Kings School site, were released from the Green Belt, before the Local Plan was approved in 2017 by the Conservatives.
Under this joint administration we have reviewed the Site Allocation and Development Policies document (SADPD) which is part 2 of the Local Plan and removed the sites that they had previously allocated for immediate release for development in Local Service Centres.
Please don't tar this administration with the same brush as the previous administration. We cannot undo their decisions but we can ensure that we make better decisions going forward with the help and continued support of residents.
Councillor Toni Fox
Independent - Residents of Wilmslow
Dean Row Ward, Wilmslow
I've lived here for a while. Royal London, previously United Friendly, previously Refuge Insurance, previously ICI have had empty office space advertised for ever! That's only one site, there are many more.
There are so many long-term empty offices in Wilmslow that owners are now proposing conversions to apartments; which is a good thing.
The number of "required"(!) houses in the desperately-flawed Local Plan has already been well-surpassed in terms of Planning Permissions granted. The build-out rate for this "Plan" (even if the numbers were correct) lags years behind.
This is, yet another, land-banking exercise, driven by financial opportunists.
I suspect that Royal London is now desperate to off-load this hot potato asap, due to several factors:
The demand for empty office space is fast shrinking.
The site has an ongoing and serious problem with flooding; not from the Whitehall Brook but from "watercourse "A" as it is described on their planning applications. Their second set of expert Consultants have no viable solution.
The two former Macclesfield Borough Council tips on the site (from a quick walk around... there is asbestos, oil drums and old lorry tyres, plus metal tanks and general nasty rubbish (this is just on the surface; 20 years after it closed. These tips are proposed by Royal London as "watercourse attenuation ponds"... they will discharge into the Whitehall Brook, downstream of the Royal London site.
It's a mess- which any purchaser of the site really will have to address.
No doubt, when the sales brochure is published, on Monday, these issues (and many more) will be detailed and a viable and legal risk-mitigation plan will be available for all to see. Or not.
@Pete Taylor, again thanks for your comments and as a resident I really appreciate all the hard work you have put into trying to stop the development of this site. Re your covenants, I know these are not considered as part of planning but the fact you have them is a big deterrent but not an absolute one. Again, as I said to Tony, I just hope that the serious issues raised with the site, when it got outline consent, are taken into consideration at full planning stage by the new administration.
Finally, I totally agree with all the other comments re office space demand and the fact that with all existing approvals there is more than enough supply to meet the requirements for new housing.
I wonder if armed with this MBC pollutant mens-rea alluded to, that is why the deposed CEC Cllrs sought to remove this site from greenbelt protection. They didnt have a very good record with waste tips ( Lyme Green ) and incurring expenditure and investigation, and were still waiting for the formal report for that to be released !
The blocked Royal London culvert is overflowing again, for the second time in ten days.
Like Nick Jones, MBC (covert) tips in that location is news to me! Please elucidate for everyone.