Dozens fewer houses than originally expected will be built alongside a major new industrial, leisure and retail development in South Ribble.
Planning permission was granted almost two years ago for the ‘Lancashire Central’ project on land at Cuerden, close to where the M6 and M65 meet.
The vast majority of the sprawling plot was to be given over to the Lancashire County Council-designed commercial scheme, which will be dominated by logistics, storage and office space – and will also include retail units, food and drink outlets, a drive-through restaurant, car showrooms, a leisure centre, gym, health facility and creche.
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However, a north western section of the site – between Stanifield Lane and Old School Lane, opposite the under-construction new Lancashire Cricket ground – was reserved for up to 116 homes. But detailed plans for the residential development have now been approved, revealing only 74 homes are to be created.
While the estate will span the same 2.5-hectare area initially set aside for it, a third fewer properties will now be delivered by housebuilder Rowland Homes.
County council planning officer Rob Hope said the tally initially estimated had been considered “quite ambitious”, because of what else had to be accommodated, including open space and planting.
The smaller estate has been given the green light by the authority’s development control committee which granted outline permission for the wider site in December 2023. It was once earmarked for an IKEA store until the furniture giant backed out of the plans seven years ago.
However, several committee members expressed concern that none of the now reduced number of dwellings would be offered at discounted ‘affordable housing’ rates.
County Cllr Martyn Sutton said that smaller two-bed properties in that category were what the area was “crying out for” – not the three and four-bedroomed detached and semi-detached homes proposed.
The meeting at which the application was discussed heard that the developer had successfully argued the estate – which will include open space and a children’s play area – would not be financially viable if it were forced to provide housing officially classed as affordable.
But County Cllr Sutton declared he was “suspicious” of the situation. “I’m just asking the question whether it’s possible…to actually design a development so that it would rule out affordable housing,” he said.
However, Rob Hope said the authority had undertaken “a very lengthy” assessment, in which it had sought independent advice on the costings put forward by the applicant – and was confident that they stacked up.
“If you start providing smaller properties, that just eats into the profit margins,” Mr. Hope explained.
He added that the housing was intended as “enabling” development to generate “some stimulus” to kickstart the overall Lancashire Central project, which it has previously been forecast will create 5,600 jobs.
However, committee member County Cllr Adrian Owens – who also wanted to see two-bedroomed homes on the site – took issue with that characterisation of how crucial the housing was to the wider scheme.
“If this [involved] putting in the main access from the roundabout at the end of the M65, I could [appreciate that, but]…this is putting a little housing estate on the edge of Stanifield Lane,” County Cllr Owens said. He described the overarching development as “struggling”.
But Rob Hope said the sale of the housing land by Lancashire County Council – which owns the broader plot – would enable it to invest in the costly infrastructure needed to “kickstart” Lancashire Central.
The housing estate was approved by eight votes to two, with two abstentions. The application, like that for Lancashire Central as a whole, was determined by the county council, rather than South Ribble Borough Council – as would usually have been the case – because the county authority had owned overall site when outline approval was granted two years ago.
It emerged late last year that land to the south of the site had been purchased by the NHS with a view to it being the location for the new Royal Preston Hospital. However, that vision has since been pushed back into the early 2040s.
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