Proposals for 10,000 new homes in Carlisle are developing at pace.
A business case For St Cuthbert’s Garden Village is set to be submitted to Government by summer 2023.
Carlisle City Council’s Place Panel is set to meet next Thursday to discuss a number of issues around economic growth and councillors will receive an update on the project, a scheme to build 10,325 new homes south of the city over the next 30 years.
It is hoped the new community will herald an economic boom for Carlisle and is one of the council’s key economic priorities.
The report reveals that the business case will be submitted to Government by summer 2023 so the priority has been “to appoint suitably qualified and experienced legal and financial advisors” to support the project.
Good progress has been made in the early planning stages of the scheme, the report said.
A number of risks to the project have been identified as part of the project management. An overriding risk is that a failure to plan comprehensively for the growth of St Cuthbert’s would result in growth occurring to the south of the city in a much more fragmented and incremental nature.
The report added that the main risk remained the continued availability of adequate resourcing for the technical work.
The new community is also intrinsically linked to the delivery of Carlisle’s Southern Link Road.
March and April saw a selection process for legal and financial advisors to support the first stage of planning. A consortium of Sharpe Pritchard and 31Ten Consulting has been chosen.
Sharpe Pritchard has experience in supporting councils with major projects like development corporations. 31Ten, financial advisors on housing, have previously partnered with Cornwall Council on their own garden settlement.
The proposals took a key step forward earlier this month as the Northern Trust Company entered into a planning promotion agreement with a private landowner for land at the site.
Jane Meek, corporate director of economic development, told councillors at a meeting last month that work is underway to produce a design code for Carlisle, starting with St Cuthbert’s Garden Village.
She said that the city council hopes the 30,000 home development would be “an exemplar of good design”.
