Developer ditches ‘white elephant’ community hub for new Preston estate, as replacement agreed
A sports facility will be created instead.
Plans to build a community centre as part of a new housing estate in rural Preston have been scrapped - so that a sports facility can be created instead.
The hub was due to be delivered as part of the Cardwell Park development, off Garstang Road in Barton. However, housebuilder Wain Homes has now been given the green light to put a multi-use games area (MUGA) in its place.
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The switch came after discussions with Barton Parish Council, which told the developer that the village was more in need of an all-weather playing space than the planned community building.
Preston City Council has now agreed to modify the agreement that formed part of the planning permission granted for the 151-home scheme, which had specified a community centre must be provided.
John Parker, chair of Barton Parish Council, told the Lancashire Post that while residents wanted to see “some sort of facility” created for the benefit of locals, the original blueprint was not the best fit.
“We always recognised that [Wain Homes proposed] the centre because it would [help] get the application through.
“But we didn't need a building - and if we were stuck with [one] just because they'd been obliged to build it, we'd have probably ended up with a bit of a white elephant.
“So they have listened to us and now they are going to provide something that we actually want.
“Both local primary schools have expressed an interest in using the facility - and some local sports clubs as well,” Cllr Parker explained.
The sports pitch - 24 metres long by 15 metres wide - will be suitable for a wide range of activities and will include basketball posts at either end. Outdoor gym equipment, seating and a 10-space car park will also form part of the recreational scheme, to be located in the south east corner of 9.4-hectare development. It will include an acoustic bund to reduce the noise experienced by nearby residents.
Separate planning permission for the MUGA was granted earlier this year, when city council planners concluded it would “blend into the wider developed site”, which was previously occupied by Cardwell Farm.
The facility will be constructed as part of the imminent second phase of the development, within which 104 dwellings will be built, in addition to the 47 completed during phase one.
The overall housing scheme sparked a public inquiry after a series of twists in the planning process saw the estate initially approved by the city council in 2019 - before that decision was later reversed the following year.
Wain Homes successfully appealed against the authority’s shift in stance - and the development was ultimately given the go-ahead by a planning inspector five years ago.
The saga turned on whether the council could meet a requirement to show that it had five years’ worth of land set aside to meet its housing targets - with a failure to do so leaving sites in the open countryside, like Cardwell Farm, vulnerable to housebuilding when they would otherwise have been protected by local planning policy.
The estate will be made up of four and five-bedroomed detached and three-bedroomed semi-detached properties. Just over a third of the dwellings are to be discounted ‘affordable housing’.