OA22 Land off A34 (28.8.22)

 

The A34 opportunity area extends towards Bradshaw Hall Lane in the North, is bounded by the A34 to the East, extending further eastwards encompassing land to the north and east of St James RC High School. The site continues towards Stanley Road which forms the southern boundary extending westwards to a small parcel of land at Outwood Road with the main western boundary formed by Wilmslow Road. Upwards of 3,700 dwellings will be delivered and the scheme shall be characterised by a high level of green and blue infrastructure.

 

The development of the site will need to:

1. Provide a range of housing including a range of sizes and tenures to meet defined local need.

2. Deliver a suitable proportion of affordable housing across the site, phased to ensure that both market and affordable housing can be delivered at similar times within the development of the site.

3. To provide a new small local centre, providing a range of facilities including provision for doctors, dentists and other health related facilities.

4. Maintain sufficient land to enable the development of an exceptionally high quality world renowned educational facility for the Seashell Trust

5. Make provision for measures to address existing car parking issues in the area.

6. Provide financial contributions towards the provision of educational facilities on the site.

7. Incorporate measures to ensure that the rate of runoff of surface water from the land is not increased and, ideally, is decreased.

8. Provide financial contributions to fund the delivery of a new access onto the A34 at land to the west of Eden Point

9.Provide significant financial contributions towards further public transport and highways infrastructure/service provision so as to enable the use of more sustainable modes of transport whilst mitigating the impact of additional traffic on, in particular, the A34, Stanley Green and Wilmslow Road corridors.

10. Provide significant financial contributions towards the provision of improved cycle and walking routes between the site and Heald Green, Cheadle Hulme and Handforth.

11. Incorporate high standards of design across the full dwelling range,

12. Incorporate high standards of landscaping treatment with substantial provision of green and blue infrastructure.

13. Safeguard protected species and their habitat, especially the retention of existing ponds.

14. Sensitively integrate new development with areas of priority habitat including the retention of existing deciduous woodland.

15. Ensure the provision of corridors of natural habitat along and adjacent to railway and A34 which both dissect the site, linking the existing wildlife corridors to the north and north-east with the open land to the south.

16. Deliver high quality landscaping throughout the development.

 

Reasoned Justification

The site benefits from good connectivity to the local road network with the ability to create a new access directly onto the A34 at Eden Point. It offers the opportunity to deliver a high quality form of development which represents an opportunity to provide an extension to Heald Green and Cheadle Hulme.

 

It is recognised that this is a large scale of development in an area which already suffers from severe congestion which, although being eased by the opening of the A6-MARR in late 2017, still remains a significant issue. As such the provision of significantly improved public transport and highway infrastructure are prerequisites for its delivery and will be required in order to enable the use of more sustainable modes of transport whilst mitigating the impact of additional vehicular traffic. The refresh of the South East Manchester Multi-Modal Strategy will outline options for significant transport infrastructure improvements in this area, also having regard to significant development proposals in the neighbouring authority area to the south.