‘It is clear that a major public intervention is now needed. This is that intervention’
CGI image of how the new warehouses could look(Image: Wain Estates)
A huge warehousing scheme in rural Trafford will have huge impacts on the environment, roads and countryside views – but council advisers believe it should be approved regardless.
Three new warehouses are planned off Isherwood Road, in Carrington. The up to 22 metre buildings will dominate views and require valuable woodland habitats to be destroyed, documents reveal. The immediate impact on already overloaded roads would be ‘severe’, they add.
Planning officers have bluntly admitted the plan does not conform with documents setting out planning policy for the borough. But they have recommended councillors back the scheme anyway.
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The project, brought forward by Wain Estates, would deliver up to 95,000 square metres of employment space over more than 30 hectares. Much of the land is brownfield – previously developed – and formerly home to a petrochemical site.
Around 6.6h is established woodland, considered to be of county and regional significance as a natural habitat and biodiversity site. It is an important area for birds, bats, hedgehogs and amphibians.
But more than 10,000 trees will be uprooted if the scheme goes ahead – the vast majority growing there. The scale of the destruction would result in ‘significant harm’ to biodiversity, planning documents state.
The warehouses are planned off Isherwood Road in Carrington(Image: Jason Roberts / Manchester Evening News)
Off-site works are proposed to create new biodiversity areas and, ultimately, would result in net-gain. But the planned new planting could take 40 years to become fully established.
Trafford council has asked Wain Estates to consider removing the woodland area from its development plan, but bosses refused, saying that would not be ‘commercially acceptable’.
There are ‘abnormal costs and constraints’ associated with developing the former petrochemical land which require the entire scheme to be brought forward, the firm argued.
In addition to habitat destruction, the new buildings will have ‘significant adverse effects’ on the character and feature of the landscape, and on the views from nearby walking routes and homes. The two largest warehouses have been described as ‘visually prominent and dominating’ in planning documents, with ‘continuous, long, monotonous building form[s]’ that will not be fully screened by proposed tree planting.
Location plan for the proposed new warehouses(Image: Wain Estates)
The roads around Carrington already struggle with congestion, with key junctions operating at, close to or over capacity currently. The planned development would add up to 229 journeys to the road network in the morning rush hour and 225 at the evening peak.
Multiple junctions on the A6114 would be significantly impacted if no mitigation is brought forward. The developer has pledged £12m in infrastructure contributions for the area which would include money towards the hugely unpopular Carrington Relief Road.
The new route aims to divert traffic away from the A6144, by linking Manchester Road to the west with the A6144 Carrington Spur in the east. Council leaders believe this will reduce congestion and improve travel times for drivers and public transport users in the area around Partington and Carrington. The scheme is yet to gain planning approval.
Wain Estates also said it would partially ‘hold back’ other employment developments it is pursuing in the area until the relief road is delivered to help minimise the impacts.
CGI image of how the new warehouses could look(Image: Wain Estates)
Despite this, planning officers acknowledged that the development would ‘result in a worsening of conditions on the local road network’, including increased traffic queues and journey delays, until planned highways improvements can be delivered.
Concern over the impact on nature, the roads and the countryside have been raised repeatedly by residents. More than 60 objections have been filed against the scheme on these grounds.
While Trafford council believes there is a need for large warehouses such as these to be constructed in the area, officers accept there are a number of alternative sites for these which would not require woodland to be destroyed. Because of this, the plan does not accord with local planning policy, they said.
However, they still believe the scheme should be allowed due to the ‘significant’ and ‘unique’ benefits it would provide. These include potentially more than 1,000 new jobs in the borough, the addition of £100m a year to Greater Manchester’s economy, and £2.2m a year in business rate for the council.
Perhaps more significantly, they believe it could unlock stalled development on the land around it. Plans for the area have been in the works for decades, but only ‘very limited’ development has been brought to fruition.
Some 277 new homes were approved at Carrington Village in 2018, however only 33 of these have been built to date. Land contamination has cost Wain Estates ‘significant time’ and tens of millions of pounds as it tried to understand the ‘complexities of a site which has been subject to 60 years of petrochemical processing’, documents state.
The new warehouses are planned off Isherwood Road in Carrington(Image: Jason Roberts / Manchester Evening News)
The developer has argued that this site is the only one that is ‘currently deliverable’ as it is the ‘least contaminated and constrained’, as well as ‘subject to the highest market demand’. Cash generated from the warehousing development would allow for re-investment into the wider site and help unlock ‘appropriate remediation’, it added.
It would also attract other companies into the area, further contributing to economic growth, documents continued.
The council believes this would allow housing development in Sale West and Partington East to ‘start being worked up at pace’, delivering around 2,200 new homes. Financial contributions will also assist with the delivery of the Carrington Relief Road, they said.
Officers concluded: “Granting planning permission […] is a breach of the development plan, and a significant one. However, there seems to be no obvious alternative to unlock an allocation which has made glacial progress over the last 30 years […]
“All other interventions taken thus far have failed, including previous policy frameworks. In order to deliver the allocation, it is clear that a major public intervention is now needed. This is that intervention.”
Councillors will meet next week to debate the scheme. If they back it, it will be delegated to officers for final sign-off once legal agreements are worked up between Trafford council and Wain Estates.
Outline planning permission is being sought, meaning the scheme would be approved in principle if the committee agrees it. The precise details would then be submitted and considered through a later application.