It has been a long time coming but June will finally bring the McCarthy and Stone planning application for the former Royal Oak site on Commercial Road to Area Committee.

Minor changes have been made to the design of the application to help meet planning officers concerns but it is not yet clear if all of issues that could stop the plans have been met.

The application can be seen on the Council’s website at: http://planning.stockport.gov.uk/PlanningData-live/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=neighbourComments&keyVal=P08J1SPJLSQ00

With the consultation period now closed, interestingly it appears that only four members of the public have put in objections to the plans while eight people have offered supportive comments.

Some of the major areas of contention with the design that are relevant to a planning decision are:

• The physical size of the new building with 40 units  – is it out of place or overdevelopment or perhaps much welcomed new homes (that potentially frees up bigger homes as older people downsize)
• The loss of the green space, the old bowling green behind the pub.  If this is accepted there is a standard national formula for compensation that the developer would have to pay the council to invest in other green space nearby.
• More traffic on Commercial Road !   Given the already very heavy traffic on Commercial Road this is worrying but given the average age of residents in McCarthy and Stone developments this might actually add less traffic at busy periods than the previous planning application for a dozen new houses.

Council officers advice will be vital, as to whether the application has met legal requirements, but it is certainly not clear cut and could come down to individual councillor opinions.

   Leave a comment