Planners set to approve Woodford homes

PLANS for nearly 1,000 homes at the 500-acre Woodford Aerodrome site in Stockport are expected to be approved next week.

JCB heir Joe Bamford bought the site in 2011 from BAE Systems for £10m and has since agreed a joint venture with a subsidiary of housebuilder Redrow called Harrow Estates. His own development vehicle is known as Avro Heritage.

Stockport’s planning committee will consider an outline application for 775 houses, a primary school and health centre, a pub, five shops and 90,000 sq ft of commercial space. There is also a detailed application for 145 houses and roads.

In December Stockport Council’s Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) revised down the number of homes for the site from 950 to 750-850 but this does not appear to have affected Avro’s ambitions for the site.

If approved, construction of the first phase is expected to start by 2015. It is estimated the development of the site will take place over nine years.