A PROPOSAL to build 36 new flats in Mossley can help redevelop an ‘eyesore’ and solve a need for accommodation by certain groups.
Jigsaw Homes has applied to Tameside Council to develop on land off Egmont Street, the former site of the Albert cotton mill.
All properties, which will be in two three-storey blocks, will be affordable and documents say they can help ease pressure on that particular sector, as well as clean up the rea.
They state: “Fly-tipping, lack of maintenance and overgrown shrubbery have contributed towards the fundamental need to restore this site to a new, improved and sustainable use that will benefit the locality and wider community.
“The site is now an eyesore to local residents and neighbouring businesses yet offers significant potential for affluent riverside development, as has been portrayed along the adjacent Huddersfield Narrow Canal, just a few metres further down Egmont Street.
“The provision will contribute to meeting various needs across the council, such as move on for care leavers reaching 18, those threatened with homelessness – particularly under 35s – as well as a growing number of single people and couples facing increasing affordability struggles.
“There are currently 83 vulnerable households in Tameside residing in temporary accommodation with a one bedroom need as of October 25.
“Such new affordable homes are acutely needed, as welling helping us deliver a balanced housing market in the medium and long term.”
The area, which runs to opposite King George V Playing Fields, will have a new access road put in if the development, proposed in association with Rochdale-based Bridgewater Land and Developments, gets the go ahead.
36 car parking spaces, of which two will be disabled spaces and six will be provided with electric vehicle charging points, will be added.
And documents supporting the scheme point to the site begging to be developed.
They add: “The site is disused following demolition of a former mill building that has sat vacant for decades, leaving the site to become overgrown.
“It therefore has a negative visual impact in the surrounding area which will be significantly improved through the residential development.
“The development would from part of an approach to deliver a mixed affordable housing offer by Jigsaw in Tameside.
“It previously housed a mill but has sat vacant for decades. that from the mid to late 19th century the Albert Cotton Mill stood on the site with its associated chimney and tanks.
“The mill was extended in the early twentieth century and an additional tank added. The mill ceased trading in 1932 and was demolished in the late 1940s. It is our understanding that the site has not been developed since.
“The site has been vacant for approximately 80 years, 20 years of which it has been allocated for employment uses.
“During this period, it has not come forward to employment uses.
“A recently completed residential development, further down Egmont Street, has set a precedent in the area for the redevelopment of neglected sites in need of site ripening.”
If given the green light, funding for the development will be secured from Homes England through their Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) 2021-26.
Planning permission will be granted or refused by Tameside Council’s Speaker’s Panel (Planning) committee.