Residents’ vision of new estate leads to delay in planning bid
Last updated 08:28, Friday, 05 September 2008
An application to build a 700-home estate, business park and supermarket in Morton has been delayed.
A request for outline planning permission for the ambitious project was expected to be made this month.
But more work is needed on the designs and the date for lodging the application with Carlisle City Council has been put back to at least October.
The land, opposite the Pirelli tyre factory off Dalston Road, is owned by the Church Commissioners for England (CCFE).
A public consultation on a draft blueprint for the scheme, known as the Morton Masterplan, has ended.
But the feedback still needs to be incorporated into the final version the designs.
Green Issues has been handling the consultation and this week the company confirmed the plans are not yet ready to be put before the city’s planning board.
Senior account manager Andrew Lester said the CCFE wants to ensure comments from the public and other interested parties are fully integrated into the designs before they are submitted.
A spokesman for the CCFE said: “As always with projects of this size and complexity there are always issues that can potentially cause a delay and, unfortunately, this proposal is no exception.
“We are working closely with all parties to ensure that the delay is kept to a minimum and will be submitting the revised masterplan shortly.”
Proposals for the estate were first announced in the 90s but then left in limbo for 10 years while the city council sought government approval for its local development plan.
The project was relaunched in July after a planning inspector ruled that the masterplan was the only feasible way of meeting Carlisle’s future housing needs.
If planning permission is granted the land will be divided up and sold to a number of different developers. It is hoped this will lead to a variety of housing styles on the estate.
But the CCFE’s head of planning and development Steve Melligan has said the site will not now be marketed until conditions improve.
Bearing this in mind, Mr Melligan said he does not believe there will be any building before 2010.
Residents will have a chance to ask the city council’s planning chief questions about the masterplan later this month.
Alan Eales will attend The Morton Park Residents’ Association (TRAMP) meeting at 7pm in Morton Community on September 30.
I hope this does not go ahead.
There are already loads of houses empty and not selling. All you are going to do is add hundreds more for no reason.
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get em up,
Posted by paul cannon on 6 September 2008 kl. 09:56