Trafford council has refused two major planning applications for more than one hundred new homes and a huge hotel. The first application to fall was a proposal for 116 new homes in Timperley.
The next was for an 169-bedroom, 10-storey hotel in Stretford.
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Both applications were slammed by councillors, but just the Timperley plans were recommended for refusal by the council’s planning officers; the Stretford hotel plans had been recommended for approval.
The Stretford proposals were for the demolition of an existing six-storey office building to make way for a 169-bedroom hotel, between four and 10 storeys of hotel accommodation and other uses including ground floor café, plus basement with pool and gym and screened rooftop plant area and tower feature off Hornby Road.
The site has already been the subject of an application for a hotel, which the council refused.
The applicants, Acre Manchester, then appealed the refusal, but that was also dismissed by the planning inspectorate. Last week, the developers came back with new plans with a reduced size and scale in the designs for the hotel in the hope of bringing ‘much-needed’ investment into the area, but these still weren’t good enough for the committee members.
Coun Simon Thomas said: “I don’t see really that this application is any different in terms of massing and close proximity to residential properties from the last one. I appreciate that they’ve changed it, but it will still be clearly visible from the rear gardens of Hornby Road.
“Not to mention the traffic, parking issues that were upheld [by the planning inspectorate]. There are 169 bedrooms in this hotel with 29 parking spaces, of which only three are accessible. It’s not enough, nowhere near enough and the impact on residents of Hornby Road will be massive. For that reason I can’t support this application as it is.”
Council officer and head of planning at Trafford council, Rebecca Coley, warned committee members that if they refused the Stretford hotel plans, they would likely face another appeal from the developers, which would most likely be successful with the planning inspectorate and leave the council facing a costs claim.
Despite this advice, the committee narrowly voted to refuse the plans, contrary to officers’ recommendations.
The council was recently taken to a public inquiry over its repeated refusal of apartments on the former B&Q store site in Stretford from developers. The outcome of that inquiry, held in February, has not yet been released.
The Timperley proposals, from Harlex LLP, sought outline permission for 116 homes on the World of Pets site on Thorley Lane.
The developers pointed out part of the site had already been earmarked by Trafford council for future development and the site was set to be removed from the greenbelt imminently anyway.
Coun Whinstanley said: “I’m really torn on this one, I used to live near there. I was quite surprised to find out Thorley Lane was in the green belt, because it’s light industrial, there’s retail, there’s lots of housing around there.
“[Soon] it will not be part of the greenbelt and it will form part of Timperley Wedge and if we turn this down today, it is going to come back again in six or 12 months, maybe in a different form.
“But there is a very clear recommendation that [if we approve this] that contravenes legislation as it now exists because [the site] is in the greenbelt.”
Councillors voted to refuse the plans due to this legal position.
Another proposal from developers Churchill for the Hare and Hounds hotel between Shaftesbury Avenue and Wood Lane in Timperley were also discussed this week.
An appeal has been lodged by Churchill against the council for not making a decision on their proposals to build 59 retirement apartments and nine retirement cottages on the site.
Councillors were asked to indicate how they would have voted on the plans had they been able to determine them before the appeal was lodged.
Coun Daniel Bunting described the plans as ‘shockingly awful’.
He said: “The actual design is a shockingly awful, third rate, thrown together with no effort, no thought, can’t be better to do anything better design. It looked more like barracks accommodation rather than anything else.
“This is a very prominent location and the design will look appalling. That combined with the size and the scale of it will make it into a monstrosity.
"It would look abhorrent, it’s completely unsuitable, no effort has gone into it whatsoever. Surely they can do better. Why they can’t come to with a half decent design the first time around, it’s very frustrating.”
The committee members voted to indicate they would have rejected these plans, had they been able to determine them.
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