Leyland - Lancashire

A 35 acre site, formerly in use as a rubber plant, on the outskirts of Leyland town centre in Lancashire. The site had a substantial coverage of inter-war multi-storey buildings and was acquired by Harrow Estates from Leyland & Birmingham Limited in September 2001.

This urban brownfield site had significant planning policy and development issues with no allocation for residential development and a strong policy framework on employment land retention. In addition the Borough Council were about to enter into housing moratoria; the key issue was therefore to speedily deliver a planning consent for residential development.

• An outline planning application was submitted for 400 dwellings and was primed for phased implementation to ensure its attractiveness to the residential land market.
• To assist in marketing the outline application was accompanied by a full application for primary infrastructure.
• Harrow Estates managed all of the planning process, including Section 106 negotiations.
• The demolition of buildings and clearance of the site was managed and supervised by Harrow Estates.
• In addition the Section 106 Agreement reduced the affordable housing requirements from 20% to 3% and managed downwards all other requests for contributions.
• As part of the planning negotiations the Authority were persuaded to accept residential development in spite of a lack of housing needs.
• The proposal was the last significant scheme delivered through planning for some years in the area.
• The site was subsequently sold and was developed by George Wimpey Homes.