Stockport endorses finance as ‘last chance saloon’ for Weir Mill
The local authority’s cabinet has approved a loan from the Mayoral Development Corporation Investment Facility to fund the construction of Capital&Centric’s £60m town centre residential development.
Weir Mill, located next to Stockport bus station in the shadow of the viaduct, is to be redeveloped to create 253 apartments. The scheme features two new build blocks and the conversion of former mill buildings.
At a meeting earlier this week, councillors voted in favour of the finance facility, to be funded through prudential borrowing, in order to save Weir Mill from dereliction.
“This is last chance saloon for Weir Mill,” said Cllr Sheila Bailey, member for sustainable Stockport.
“It is a building that will not recover if this development doesn’t go ahead. [The project] will help to regenerate a part of Stockport that has been in need of regeneration for a long time.”
Cllr David Meller, member for regeneration, added that the council could encourage inward investment by choosing to finance the Weir Mill scheme, adding that the project would be a “catalyst” for the town’s wider revamp.
Planning approval for Capital&Centric’s Weir Mill project, designed by BDP, was granted in September and construction could begin early next year now the loan has been approved.
Cllr Tom McGee, member for finance and resource, added more support for the approval of the loan and lamented that the site’s previous owners, Maryland Securities, hadn’t acted faster to revamp the site.
“[The mill] is in such a state now that if nothing is done to it, it will go beyond the point at which anything can be done to it. I look forward to the day the shovels start digging.”
The authority has already received £7m from Homes England to unlock the site for redevelopment.
Choice between harm to Green Belt or harm to Viaduct? – Green Belt wins again.
Also, proof will be in the pudding as to whether or not a suitable living environment can be created here.
By UnaPlanner
There is no ‘harm’. The viaduct is strong enough to not be overwhelmed by a block of flats. A nice looking block of flats too. What would be harmful would be to let Weir Mill fall into the Weir through neglect and lack of a viable scheme to refurbish and redevelop it.
Ultimately the viaduct is a piece of infrastructure that is designed to allow people to live and work in Stockport.
By Stocky Flats
Absolute swathes of developable land within this vicinity which could be built out without impacting in such a way on the iconic viaduct.
By NT
@UnaPlanner. I think this is a suitable living environment – old mill buildings have been very successfully converted for one. Also, in the centre of town with all the amenities and transportation links.
By SW
nice looking scheme, we’ve got hundreds of these beautiful buildings in the North West that are languishing in abandonment, more of this pls
By Dave Reynolds
Definitely the right thing to do…always helps to get cheap loans and grants though to complete these ‘risky’ developments.
By ST
Another eyesore on our landscape. And I don’t understand how the Council can provide a loan to developers, who don’t have the finance facility themselves. We’re surely lending them the means to make millions for themselves! Surely Council loans would be better spent on the Services we all pay for, and are so clearly lacking. Poor decision.
By MikeM
Would have been interesting to see what Tim Groom would have designed for this location. Not convinced locating this building so close to the viaduct is necessary either.
By MrP
Do the council provide cheap loans for affordable housing?
By Anonymous