Planning news: First phase of Muse’s £220m Blackpool scheme set for approval; Peel pursues Jackson’s Wharf plan; and more

PLANNING officers in Blackpool have recommended that Muse Developments’ application for the first phase of its £220m Blackpool Central Village is approved.

The officers have recommended that a five-storey office block with ground floor retail units and a redfevelopment of the 653-space Talbot Road multi-storey car park in the town are both approved.

The offices will be used for as the council’s own base and the works form part of a £220m redevelopment which could see more than 900,000 sq ft of offices, hotels, shops, cafes and restaurants delivered over the next 13 years.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s was also signed up earlier this month as the operator of a 60,000 sq ft foodstore on the site.

The committee hearing for the application is due next Monday.

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PROPERTY giant Peel is progressing with its controversial proposal to build a pair of residential towers on the site of the former Jacksons Wharf pub in Castlefield despite having already announced its sale.

Peel announced the sale of the site to Chester-based pub operator Brunning & Price earlier this month. Its managing director, Graham Price, has announced plans to turn it into a new venue known as The Wharf next year.

However, two linked planning applications to build apartment blocks on the site, which were originally submitted in June, are due to be heard by Manchester City Council’s planning committee tomorrow.

Although planning officers had initially stated they were “minded to approve” the scheme, a wave of objections from local residents about the scale and massing of one of the buildings, and the development’s overall impact on the Castlefield Conservation Area, meant that committee members indicated they may refuse the application.

Peel’s subsidiary company, Ship Canal Properties, asked for its application not to be determined until it submitted revised plans for the site, but then last month the firm indicated the it wished for its plans to be put forward in their current form. This includes plans for an ‘L’-shaped seven-storey building containing 117 apartments and ground floor retail space and a building containing 85 apartments with ground floor retail.

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A PLANNING application has been approved for a facility for ex-sailors in Wallasey has been approved. The £2.4m Mariners’ Park community hub will have a social hub for ex-sailors with 18 apartments above.

It forms part of a retirement community of 109 dwellings and a care home that has been commissioned by Nautilus – an international trade union for maritime professionals.

The scheme has been designed by Manchester-based Pozzoni Architects. Its design reflects the nautical / maritime themes of its Merseyside location and has art deco features inspired by the 1920s classic period of ship design. It also makes use of views across the Mersey to Liverpool.

The ground floor will be dedicated to high quality communal facilities with eighteen apartments arranged on three floors above plus a roof level observation deck overlooking the Mersey.

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KNUTSFORD-based housebuilder PH Property Holdings has renewed an application to demolish Park Green Mill in Macclesfield town centre and replace it with 36 new homes.

Planning for the scheme was initially granted in May 2009 but was due to expire. Its renewed application has been recommended for approval by officers of Cheshire East Council to members of its Northern Planning Committee, which is due to sit later today.