Councillors to rule on housing development application for Moss Nook

An application seeking approval of reserved matters – layout, appearance, landscaping and scale – for residential development comprising 295 dwellings at the site, on Watery Lane and Providence Avenue, will come before the planning committee on Tuesday, April 16.

The scheme also comprises internal access roads, car parking, substation, landscaping and other associated infrastructure, with access from Providence Avenue.

The applicant is Harworth Estates Ltd.

According to a report to the committee, the application relates to phase three of the wider brownfield development site known as Moss Nook, which has had hybrid planning permission for a mixed-use development previously granted.

The Moss Nook site pictured in 2022 (Image: Baldwin Design Consultancy (St Helens Council Planning Portal))

The report says: “Consent is sought for the approval of reserved matters for phase three, which includes layout, appearance, landscaping, and scale for a residential development comprising 295 dwellings.

“The development would deliver a mixture of 2, 3 and 4 bed semidetached, detached and mews type properties, along with apartments.

“The properties proposed for this phase of development will be for both affordable housing and Build to Rent (BtR).

“The affordable housing will deliver 185 units split between affordable rent, social rent, and shared ownership; these properties would be owned and managed by Torus62 Ltd (“Torus”) and delivered through Homes England funding.

“The remaining 110 dwellings are BtR properties, which would be rented out at market rates; that will be owned by a long-term institutional investor and an agent appointed to oversee the management of the scheme in accordance with the submitted property management strategy.

Councillors are recommended to approve the reserved matters application (Image: St Helens Star)

“The principle of residential development on the site and the access arrangements for the development were agreed as part of the hybrid planning permission.

"These matters are not to be considered as part of determining this reserved matters application.

“The details submitted for the reserved matters application in relation to scale, appearance, layout, and landscaping are acceptable and will ensure the development is delivered in an appropriate way in line with the hybrid planning permission.

“The housing mix, layout and appearance of the house types proposed are acceptable. There is not considered to be any unacceptable impacts to residential amenity in the layout.”

The committee is recommended to delegate to the head of planning to approve reserved matters subject to the ‘re-discharge’ of condition eight of the hybrid planning approval, and the conditions – along with delegating authority to the head of planning to ‘amend/change plans and conditions as deemed necessary’.