Gas works developer wants 65 additional homes

A developer who controversially won an appeal to build 370 homes on the former gas works in Marshgate Drive now wants to add 65 further homes on the site.

The site is allocated for around 200 homes in the District Plan but developer Berkeley Group now want to build 440.

A planning application for 370 homes was originally refused by the district council's Development Management Committee in 2019, but the council were overruled by a government planning inspector in 2020.

Work started on the project in 2021 but was halted shortly after, with the site having been mothballed since.

A later amendment to add 5 further homes was approved by planning officers in 2023.

The new proposals would see 65 additional homes built in the roofspace of the approved buildings. Amendments to the parking layout would maintain the 0.75 spaces per home.

Berkeley claim that the aditional homes are likely to generate 10 and 15 additional two-way movements in peak hours compared to the existing approved scheme. 

The housebuilder, which specialises in urban regeneration projects, has been hit by slowing demand, with pretax profits falling 7.7% to £275m over the year to October 2024.