Major industrial and retail development approved for end of M65 site

The approval of plans for the Cuerden site in South Ribble – near where the M65 meets the M6 – goes some way towards ending the uncertainty that has surrounded the sprawling plot since a previous proposal to build an IKEA store there collapsed in 2018.

However, a meeting of Lancashire County Council’s development control committee – at which the new 'Lancashire Central' blueprint was accepted – heard there are still “large blank spaces” in the draft design of the scheme, which will not be finalised until later in the planning process.

The outline application – brought jointly by the county council itself and Maple Grove Developments – did set out much of what is expected to be built on the 71 per cent of the 65-hectare plot that the local authority owns.

The site is almost half-a-mile wide – running from from the M6 and A49 Wigan Road in the east to Stanifield Lane in the west – and extends for more than a third of a mile from its northern boundary with the A582 Lostock Lane down to Stoney Lane.

The lion’s share of it will be given over to the creation of an indicative 174,000 square metres of industrial, storage and office space – along with retail units, food and drink outlets, a drive-through restaurant, car showrooms, a leisure centre, gym, health facility, creche and 116 new homes.

The applicants claim their plans will create up to 5,600 full-time jobs once the development is complete – expected to be in seven years – and 2,400 temporary jobs during the construction phase.  In total, they estimate that the occupied site would see an extra £390m a year injected into the local economy.

Agent Paul Newton described it as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deliver a dynamic, sustainable, best-in-class development that will generate significant economic, social and environmental benefits”.

While County Hall planning officers said the lack of specifics about the shape of the scheme was normal at the outset of such a major project, the dearth of detail – particularly over environmental issues – split the committee down the middle.  A proposal to defer the decision until more information was forthcoming was defeated only by the casting vote of the chair.

Meanwhile, a representative of the property developer that owns the remainder of the plot warned committee members ongoing legal action the firm was taking against the county council meant they should not be making a decision on the matter yet anyway.

However, that issue was nearly entirely undiscussed during a near 90-minute debate on the proposal – much of which turned on the impact of the development on veteran trees across the site.

Nearly all of the tree coverage comes from oak and sycamore species, with mature hedge trees having been mapped at the location as far back as 1848 – and some of the examples being described as “irreplaceable” by county planning officials.

The permission requested by the applicants was outline in all respects other than the full permission sought for access points – to be taken from the M65 terminus – and some “strategic” elements of the landscaping plans for the site.

It was acknowledged some trees would be lost as part of the access arrangements, although South Ribble Council’s local plan requires an on-site replacement of two trees for every one whose loss is “unavoidable”.

But committee members were concerned about the fate of those trees that did not lie in the path of the access roads, but whose future, they felt, was left blowing in the breeze.

According to a condition imposed on the outline permission, no other trees shall be removed unless or until the county council approves a statement setting out the “the nature and extent of the proposed impacts or losses, alternatives explored to avoid or minimise those impacts or losses and a demonstration of why those alternatives were not feasible”.

The planning department report notes South Ribble’s local plan also requires development within the borough to be designed so as to ensure that existing landscape features “are retained” – although there may be some instances where it is considered “acceptable” to remove them.

Committee members Julia Berry and David Westley both described what they were being asked to agree to about the trees as  “a leap of faith”, with Cllr Westley adding that it would be “ a crying shame” if any more than currently proposed were cut down without the committee’s say so.

Principal planning officer Rob Hope said any such future request would have to “come back before the council” for approval.

Fellow committee member Steve Holgate highlighted a litany of concerns listed by the county council’s own landscaping service about what it suggested were deficiencies in some of the information provided.

He said he was “embarrassed” by it and it was “hard to believe” such a situation had arisen.  He requested a plan to achieve it, along with landscaping and construction environmental management plans be brought to the committee before even outline permission was granted.

But county planning head Andrew Mullaney, said imposing such a requirement would be “unreasonable”.

“A substantial part of this [application] is a blank sheet of paper…[and] it’s subject to matters which are reserved for more detail to come forward [later].

“That’s a normal everyday thing in the planning system – it’s not unusual in the planning world.  What is unusual is to demand that detail for an application upfront,” Mr. Mullaney said.

Mr Hope added that many of the landscaping service’s complaints had arisen from “illustrative” information which had later been removed from the outline application, adding that any outstanding issues had been responded to.

County Cllr Holgate's plan was defeated by the casting vote of committee chair Matthew Maxwell-Scott.

The Brookhouse Group, the property developer which owns the 29 per cent of the Cuerden site not in Lancashire County Council’s control, wrote to the authority 24 hours before the development control committee met to consider the outline application and urged County Hall to defer the decision.

The two parties are locked in a legal dispute over the way in which the county council selected its development partner for the Cuerden project – Bamber Bridge-based Maple Grove Developments.

An attempt by the authority to get Brookhouse’s claim against it struck out failed at an initial hearing last month. That means the full case will now be heard at a later date, unless the county council successfully applies for permission to appeal the decision, a move thought to be under consideration.

Simon Ricketts, representing Brookhouse at the committee meeting, said one of the “potential consequences” of that legal action was the county council’s joint planning application with Maple Grove should not be considered by the authority‘s own independent development control committee, but the planning committee of South Ribble Council.

Irrespective of that issue, Mr. Ricketts also called for the county council to enter into a planning agreement that would prevent the authority from holding Brookhouse “to ransom” over access to the firm’s portion of the wider Cuerden plot, which was the subject of a masterplan for the whole area, requiring its “comprehensive” development.

“We’ve given examples…from across the country of where this has been done.  We don’t understand why the council is refusing to agree to this provision – I can only think of one reason and it is not becoming of this authority,” Mr. Ricketts said.

But Cllr Maxwell-Scott said the advice was that it was “legally appropriate” for the matter to be considered at the meeting.

County planning officials say the design of the Lancashire Central proposal “still maintains the opportunity to link through to the wider site at a later date”.

But the document added there was no obligation within the South Ribble local plan or the adopted masterplan to place “a burden on the applicant, in its capacity as landowner, to grant rights over its own land”.

Later Aidy Riggott, county economic development cabinet boss, said: “These are exciting proposals for this key strategic employment site in the heart of the county and we’re pleased that we gained planning approval. The site is regionally significant, vital to the place-shaping agenda and will deliver major economic outcomes for Lancashire.

“Higher skilled jobs with competitive salaries will boost employment growth and create a quality place to work, live and visit, making a real difference to the lives and wellbeing of people in Lancashire.”