Update on plans to build 8 'traditional' homes in 2 mirror image rows on former quarry site

Mohammed Shafi of One 7 GRP has applied to Blackburn with Darwen Council for the detached and semi-detached houses on land at corner of Harcourt Road and Cheltenham Road in Wensley Fold.

A supporting statement with his application tells planners: “Proposals have been developed to redevelop an area of ‘brownfield’ in a residential area to the north-west of the centre of Blackburn, north Lancashire.

“The site, partly walled in stone and latterly occupied mainly by garages, was once a quarry on the outskirts of the town that was infilled in the early-20th century once residential development had become well-established in the vicinity.

“The proposals are to build two parallel and almost mirror image rows of houses within the boundary walls of the site. These will be of traditional form and aligned west-east facing onto an internal straight drive accessed from the eastern end off Harcourt Road. In each row there will be a pair of central semi-detached properties flanked by detached houses.

“The access to the site will be by way of the remodelled existing vehicular entrance off Harcourt Road, and there will also be a pedestrian access formed in the blocking of the other vehicular access off Croydon Street. The existing pedestrian access off Cheltenham Road will be blocked.”

The proposal would result in the redevelopment of a brownfield site and one that would follow the historic character of suburban developments in the area – retaining a degree of historical separateness in the topography through the retention of its boundaries and also echoing the linear nature of the layout of older housing in the vicinity.

“The site has a tall boundary wall; this is mainly built of sandstone – presumably from the quarry. “There are vehicular gateways in the west and east walls, both of which appear to have been inserted through the wall.

“At the eastern end of the northern wall, on Cheltenham Road, is a pedestrian gateway topped by an arch of steelwork and bearing the name, in wrought steel lettering, ‘Harcourt Garages’. It presumably dates from around the 1960s when the garage complex was developed. Within the site there are now no surviving buildings.

“The site is of some interest in being a former quarry, walled around – presumably for safety reasons – as the area around it was developed for housing from the later-19th to early-20th centuries.”