A bid to build 29 new homes on the site of a former South Cumbrian garden centre has been given the go-ahead.
Members of Barrow in Furness local area planning committee for Westmorland and Furness Council approved plans from Leck Construction Ltd to build 29 homes on the former Avon Garden Centre at Mill Lane in Walney.
It will include 22 three-bedroom properties, four four-bedroom houses and three affordable two-bedroom homes on the site, opposite the fire station and next to Vickerstown Primary School.
Councillor Les Hall (Hawcoat and Newbarns, Conservative) proposed the committee approve the planning application and said he hoped future developments in the area were of a similar standard.
The applicant’s agent Harry Tonge told committee members the proposals would deliver much-needed homes on a derelict brownfield site.
A previous planning application for outline permission for three homes on the site was refused in 2011 as the site was not allocated for housing. Since then, the site has been included in the local plan for housing.
A new pavement will be created along the existing verge way of Mill Lane and a zone of soft landscape planting will be included on the public side of the house walls and garden fences. This will form a green link between the adjoining areas of ‘Green Wedge’ categorised land, planning documents add.
A report by planning officers said: “Overall the proposal offers a compatible and sensitive housing development that makes good use of this premium allocated housing site in a sustainable location that would benefit from and support local services.”
Members of Barrow in Furness local area planning committee approved the proposals yesterday.
