Unplugged £1B Trafford Waters Plan Means A Bigger Splash
After a 25 month delay, the £1B redevelopment of Trafford Waters (known to planners as the Trafford Centre Rectangle) could be back on track after disputes about bridge and motorway junction improvements appear to be resolved.
John Whittaker's Peel Investments' plans for Trafford Waters last went before planners in October 2016, and were provisionally approved on condition that Peel addressed highways problems connected to local roads and junction 10 of the M60 Manchester orbital motorway, improvements to the A57 and a new bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal. The project is now returning to Trafford Council's planning committee this week with a recommendation to confirm the approval.
The recommendation comes as Whittaker mulls the latest move in his consortium's £2.9B bid to take over Trafford Centre owner intu.
A report to councillors, meeting on Thursday 22 November, shows that unless highways issues were resolved development at Trafford Waters would have been capped at 250 residential units, 300K SF of office floorspace and another 21K SF of commercial floorspace.
Peel Investments (North) has applied for permission to build up to 3,000 dwellings, 860K SF of office space, up to 300 hotel beds and ancillary commercial floorspace as part of the Trafford Waters package.
By 2017 it had been agreed that work on improving junction 10 did not need to start until the development reached 1,050 residential units. However, the new bridge became a problem.
"Following its practical completion [of the bridge], the applicant displayed a clear reticence to open [it] to vehicular traffic until December 2017," the report said. "Further doubt was also cast over the future availability and on-going maintenance of the Bridge.
"The [council] considers the events that have occurred since April 2017 to represent a material change of planning circumstances in respect of the Trafford Waters application. It is evident from the report that was presented to committee in October 2016, that transport infrastructure and highways improvements were critical to make the Trafford Waters development acceptable in planning terms and to outweigh any adverse impacts."
To solve the problem Trafford planners intend to impose a new condition on the planning application.
"Officers have, with the benefit of advice from leading Counsel, composed a ... condition stating that no development shall take place until the highway, bridge and ancillary works ... have been implemented; are operational; have been brought into use; and have been dedicated to/adopted by the relevant public highway authority," the report said.
