Plans to build 700 new homes near Etihad Stadium could be set for go-ahead

Manchester City Council planning officers will consider proposals to build 700 new homes in Newton Heath.

The plans to transform the area will also include a new secondary school, park, and community hub.

As part of the proposal, a 47-acre site that once housed Jackson’s Brickworks, but has since laid empty for around three decades, could soon see both apartments and houses built on it, as well as parts of the Rochdale Canal opened up.

Your Housing Group – the housing association which acquired the 47-acre site off Ten Acres Lane in 2020 – said the scheme would incorporate public realm in the form of pocket parks, a community park, and landscaping along the canal towpath, together with improved access to the towpath for pedestrian and cyclists.

The development is planned in two phases – one which features 378 homes and another for 338 homes, including one to four bedroom houses and flats.

Around half of the homes would be affordable, subject to grant funding.

Planning officers are minded to approve subject to a legal agreement in respect of a reconciliation clause.

Councillors will consider the application at next week’s planning committee, on September 22.

Also up for consideration is a new Aldi store in north Manchester which planning officers are recommending for approval.

The proposal would see the demolition of The Imperial Lounge Restaurant on Victoria Avenue East, Blackley to make way for an Aldi convenience store.

The proposal, which has received 16 objections so far, seeks to erect a retail foodstore to be operated by Aldi, following demolition of the existing structures, together with a new access off Victoria Avenue East as well as a car park which will include parking for cycles, servicing area, and hard and soft landscaping.

The current proposal represents a slightly revised design to that originally submitted with revised details submitted in relation to the landscaping and increased tree planting.

As the site also includes a small amount of surplus land associated with the adjacent rugby club’s playing fields, the plans includes a land transfer involving an extension of the existing playing fields, as well as the relocation of boundary fencing to the playing fields, the addition of ball strike netting and the relocation of floodlighting.