Huncoat Garden Village project moves closer to becoming a reality

The agreement with Homes England for the £30m grant for the Huncoat Garden Village project of more than 1,800 homes is set to be signed in the next few days and the planning application for the relief road at its heart has been submitted.

Hyndburn Council's deputy leader and housing and communities boss Cllr Melissa Fisher delivered the good news to the authority's cabinet when it met on Wednesday.

She told senior colleagues: "Huncoat Garden Village is a residential-led mainly brownfield housing development opportunity that supports the council's growth plans.

"It also supports the government's plans for more housing.

"The £460m project will bring back into use the former power station and colliery sites at Huncoat creating an extension to the existing Huncoat village.

"It will deliver 1,86 new homes of mixed tenure including a minimum of 363 new affordable and social houses.

"The project will also see developed:

" * a new residential relief road;

" * the creation of a village centre meeting local amenity needs;

" * an expanded primary school;

" * additional railway station parking;

" * 24 hectares of accessible and manager open space;

" * potential for a safeguarded space of ecological importance;

" * new woodland; and

" * new sports space and facilities to benefit Huncoat and the wider area,

""The council is working towards entering into a grant funding agreement with Homes England before the end of the month.

"This is a major step forward for the project and means Homes England will pay Hyndburn Council just under £30m for new infrastructure in Huncoat over the next three years.

"The scale of the funding and size of this project brings significant risks to the council which has mitigation measures in place with the intention of reducing the risk to the council.

"A further key step forward for the project is he council's recent submission of a full planning application for the proposed new residential relief road that will connect the new residential areas with the A56 near to The Griffin public house.

"This is something that I am really pleased about because Huncoat councillor Dave Parkins has always pushed for the proposed road to be constructed in advance of the proposed new development."

The meeting authorised Cllr Fisher, council leader Cllr Munsif Dad and head of regeneration and house, Mark Hoyle, to review and sign the agreement with Homes England after reviewing some technical changes in the final draft.

Conservative opposition group leader Cllr Zak Khan welcomed the progress but sought assurances that the risk to the council of the massive project was not too great.