Green light for 135 affordable Lancaster homes, Middleton industrial
City councillors signalled their approval yesterday for two large-scale projects: the transformation of the former Skerton High School site into council housing and the building of 148,000 sq ft of sheds at Middleton Business Park.
Both decisions were in line with officer recommendation and will require a Section 106 agreement prior to becoming official.
Former Skerton High School
- Application reference number: 24/00509/FUL
Lancaster City Council’s goal to regenerate the Mainway council estate has received a boost, now that the local authority’s application build 135 affordable homes on the former Skerton High School site have received councillor approval.
Skerton High School, which closed in 2014, had already been demolished to make way for the new homes on the nine-acre site.
These residences will be a mixture of apartments and terraced houses, with between two and four bedrooms. In total, there will be 64 one-bed homes, 46 two-bed residences, 21 three-bed houses, four four-bed ones.
All of the flats will be available for social rent, with the terraced homes’ exact form of affordable housing tenure undisclosed.
Two six-storey blocks would house the majority of the apartments, with one holding 40 flats and the other having 35. The latter would also contain 3,600 sq ft of ground-floor community space.
In addition to the community space provided in the apartment block, there would also be a central square with a lawn and café-style seating for residents to enjoy. Designs by architect Grounded Practice also include two football pitches and associated changing facilities, as well as a play area for kids.
A total of 110 trees will be planted as part of the effort.
A priority junction would be introduced onto Owen Road to enable access to the site. There would 89 spaces for residents to park, including six disabled bays and 10 for mobility scooters.
Cllr Caroline Jackson, Leader of Lancaster City Council, described the committee’s decision as a “huge step forward in our regeneration efforts for Mainway”. These include transforming the 257-home council estate, which sits next to the school, into a neighbourhood filled with energy-efficient homes.
Jackson said: “It’s not just about building new homes, but about creating a vibrant community space that people can be proud of, and it will make a real difference to local families and the wider Lancaster community.”
In addition to Grounded Practice, the project team includes landscape architect Shape, transport consultant Heyne Tillett Steel, and Place Capital Group. Turley is the planner and is also advising on flood risk, heritage, and visual impact.
Sports strategist KKP, mineral resource expert Wardell Armstrong, ground investigator GEA, ecologist UES, and arboriculturalist MD Landscape also contributed to the planning application. As did Azymuth Acoustics, LEDA, Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture, and Redmore Environmental.
The site is allocated as employment land with the Lancaster District Local Plan Proposals Map. Credit: Google Earth
Land at Middleton Business Park
- Application reference number: 23/01182/OUT
Concert Projects can move forward with its plans to build 148,000 sq ft of storage and distribution space on 11 acres of the former ICI depot, which sits north of Middleton Road. The site has been allocated for employment in the area’s local plan and is listed as part of the Heysham Gateway strategic employment site.
The approved plans include the building of nine sheds between 7,800 sq ft and 34,300 sq ft. However, since this is an outline application, this could change.
This was the second time Concert Projects had brought proposals for the site to committee. A similar application was shot down in 2022 because of lack of environmental impact information – an error that was not repeated this go round.
JWPC is the planning consultant for the scheme. Sunderland Peacock Architects, Vectos/SLR Transport Planning Consultants, BEK Ecology, Yew Tree, and Miller Goodall round out the project team.
Can once in a while an approval not be described as receiving the ‘green light’?
By PLF_Cloud_Cuckoo_Land
You are in luck, PLF_Cloud_Cuckoo_Land! If you look at our five most recent approval stories (not counting this one) we have “Blueoak’s £20m Sale office-to-resi progresses”, “Wirral signs off 115 brownfield homes”, “Plan for Bolton school gets top marks”, “Blackpool’s Winter Gardens 266-room hotel gets go-ahead”. We’ll continue to vary our headlines, as is our practice.
By Julia Hatmaker
Scerton is neglected. The city does not invest in Scerton and it is sad to see. Streets without greenery, without trees. Old, dilapidated buildings are scary. But if civic assistance were established for little money, you could paint the houses in nice colors, plant low trees so that the streets of Norfolk, Pinfold, Broadway would stop being scary. Maybe it would be worth encouraging residents in the housing project to put flower pots in front of their houses, hang flowers by the doors, clean the backs of houses and repaint fences.Similarly, no one pays attention to a shop that is shabby, dull and scary, instead of forcing the owner to clean it up. Changes in the surroundings can have a huge impact on the morale of the community of Scerton. When changes occur, when the streets become nice, the residents also change for the better, feel better and start to take care of the surroundings.In the summer, there could be deckchairs and umbrellas by the river under which you could relax, ice cream, cake and coffee stands. Scerton can be beautiful. It has wonderful air and a healthy microclimate, it is green by the river but deserted and nothing cultured happens here. They call it the second Brooklyn, but if these streets changed, it would encourage cool, new people to come here, and the local social pathology would have good role models and motivation for change.First, let the city take care of the old streets, help the residents with changes, and then let it build a new housing estate to which it will introduce well-lit residents so that decent citizens will live here. Also build an all-day culture and art center here, so that children and young people can learn necessary things like cutting and sewing, painting, playing instruments, singing, baking and cooking or learning foreign languages. There are many retired teachers who would be happy to share their experiences and children they would be cared for and have the opportunity to get to know a better world
By Bea