Barratt Homes eye up Gayton fields for development
Barratt Homes are looking to build an estate of 300 houses on Green Belt land off Chester Road in Gayton.
The site is bounded by:
· the Wrexham/Bidston railway line to the east;
· the rear of properties in Foxcover Road to the north;
· playing fields, stables and Gayton Park to the west;
· Chester Road to the south.
At this stage, no actual planning application has been made, but Barratt have asked Wirral Council to confirm that an Environmental Impact Assessment will not be needed.
The land is currently owned by Leverhulme Estates. They gave tenants at Bridges House Farm notice to vacate last year.
Documents submitted to Wirral’s Planning Department show that access to a new development would be off Chester Road.
They suggest there would be new landscape and woodland planting; new green edge boundary planting; public open space and a play area; and a Sustainable Drainage System.
They say that development would include some affordable housing.
How likely is development to go ahead?
As things stand, Wirral’s Local Plan does not permit development in the Green Belt, so any application would almost certainly be refused.
However, the Heswall Focus Team contacted the Planning Department and received this advice:
“An updated version of the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) is to be published later this year which will see an overhaul of existing national policies, including Green Belt.
Also, consideration will need to be given to the status of our adopted Local Plan at the point of submission and whether we are still able to demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply.
Presently, we can, but the government are soon to revise housing numbers, which may impact on our ability to demonstrate the 5-year housing land supply.”
Please let us know what you think
Heswall Liberal Democrats would like to know what local residents feel about the possibility of this agricultural land being turned over to housing.
To find our survey, please click here.
