Bar, restaurant and 311 homes eyed for Longford power station site

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Bar, restaurant and 311 homes eyed for Longford power station site

Postby dutchman » Sat Jan 23, 2021 12:01 pm

Industrial and retail units also form part of the plans

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Plans have been submitted for up to 311 homes and industrial and retail units on the site of a former power station in Coventry.

The mixed-use scheme is earmarked on land off Alderman’s Green Road in Longford, but the bid has already sparked local concern and a petition.

Applicants TIS Worldwide Ltd and Bridgewell Investments Ltd have proposed 1,700 sqm industrial space alongside 1,225 sqm of retail/office space, including a bar or restaurant.

In planning statements they say the site offers “an excellent opportunity for the redevelopment of brownfield land”, creating “a characterful and liveable new neighbourhood”.

“The proposed development will provide 311 residential units which include one and two bed apartments as well as two, three and four bed dwelling houses,” they have said.

“All of which are designed to create a high quality and attractive place to live and provide efficient, flexible and accessible homes.”

But residents have raised concerns over the site suitability and the scale of development. The site in Longford was home to a coal fired power station which was demolished in 1979 and used for landfill until it was landscaped in the 1990s.

In 2014, there were previous plans approved for a 225-berth canal boat marina, 24 houses and 35 small warehousing units, but development never took place.

Community group Longford CAN, who have raised a 60-name petition objecting to the plans, said there are fears over the impact on roads in conjunction with a number of other developments already mooted for the area including 500 homes on the former Hawkesbury Golf Course site, and 73 homes and 19-hectares of business units on land off Wilsons Lane/A444.

Michael Fell, group secretary, said: “This is 300 plus houses and we haven’t got the highways to take all the traffic.

“This plan also comes straight out onto a very narrow highway. You are also going to have goods vehicles delivering to the site but we haven’t got the capacity in Longford to take all this traffic.

“We are not against development, in fact the power station site we would be glad to see it developed in the right manner because it has become a real nuisance for anti-social behaviour."

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Re: Bar, restaurant and 311 homes eyed for Longford power station site

Postby Melisandre » Sat Jan 23, 2021 6:43 pm

My brother in law use to be a lorry driver for a haulage firm very close by there he told me a part of that land was deadly poison which was being sold for £1.00 at the time years back providing who ever bought it kept the up keep of it cutting the grass it was on a hill. My ex use to work there too when it was a power station.

Dont you get methain gas coming up into the houses if it was used as a tip as my brother in law said for that very reason he would never buy a house that use to be a tip as he knew all the areas that were nt fit to build houses on around the country being a lorry driver.

I know houses in Longford have been built on top of land that Courtaulds use to dump their poisons a boat gypsy told me that grew up around Longford their parents worked the canals it was well known in the mid 70s when I lived close by the Greyhound.
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Re: Bar, restaurant and 311 homes eyed for Longford power station site

Postby rebbonk » Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:09 am

The lorry park at the bottom of Oban Rd has a methane control plant on it. It was a quarry that Courtaulds filled with various wastes. Someone in the know told me what was buried there but there are no official records.

The old Exhall pit was backfilled when it closed. Again, I doubt anyone has a clue what went in there. Interestingly, the Tresillian Rd area seems to have an unhealthy cluster of cancers.

I thought that the land highlighted on that map still contained a power distribution control room? There was certainly one there for a long time after the power station itself was demolished.

It's amazing what these old boaters know, Melisandre. Sadly, there are fewer and fewer of them around to tell us the tales.
Of course it'll fit; you just need a bigger hammer.
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Re: Bar, restaurant and 311 homes eyed for Longford power station site

Postby Melisandre » Sun Jan 24, 2021 6:16 pm

I knew there was a quarry there once Rebbonk but not about the methane control plant makes you wonder what we live by does nt it.

Terrible about what could be buried at the old Exhall pit which possibly causing cancers around Tresillian Rd

Yes the control room was still there after the towers and power station was demolished as I lived there when the towers were blown up I watched it out my back bedroom window a few years after a few lads that use to come to my house years earlier was done for smashing it up wrecking the control room . I ll give no names away ;)

The water gypsys are still around Rebbonk a lot have moved out the area some not to far away but some of their off spring still live local . One grandson has a canal boat by the Engine when I spoke to him last year on the canal tow path .
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Re: Bar, restaurant and 311 homes eyed for Longford power station site

Postby dutchman » Mon Apr 19, 2021 4:04 pm

Major homes and retail scheme on old Coventry power station site withdrawn

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Developers have withdrawn ambitious plans for up to 311 homes and industrial and retail units on the site of a former power station in Coventry.

A mixed-use scheme was sought on land off Aldermans Green Road, in Aldermans Green, close to the Hawkesbury Junction where the Coventry/Oxford canals meet.

It entailed 1,700 sqm industrial space alongside 1,225 sqm of retail/office space, including a bar or restaurant. But the plans sparked local concern with a petition of 120 signatures objecting to the scheme.

Statutory consultees also raised objections over the site’s ground condition, impact on roads, lack of funding for sports facilities, and a design set against the “historic” canal.

The site was previously home to a coal-fired power station which was demolished in 1979 and used for landfill until it was landscaped in the 1990s.

In 2014, plans had been approved for a 225-berth canal boat marina, 24 houses and 35 small warehousing units, but development never took place.

While the Environment Agency said the 2014 bid found elevated metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and asbestos, they said there had been “limited” assessment by the current applicant into the risks it posed to water contamination.

Calling for a comprehensive site investigation and risk assessment, they added: ”Without these conditions, the proposed development on this site could pose an unacceptable risk to the environment and we would object to the application.”

The Canal and River Trust objected over the “little scope for soft landscaping” alongside the canal, branding the design as a “heavy built-up urban character very much as odds with the current semi-rural canal corridor”.

Highways England raised objections due to concern trip rate data used to assess traffic implications was based on the 2011 census, too old, and “no longer representative”; while further information was sought around drainage.

Sport England objected over concerns the development, if approved, may have placed additional pressure on existing sports facilities, “with no contributions being made towards sports facilities”.

NHS Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group requested £217,162 to fund improvement works, stating existing services “do not have the physical capacity” for the 746 residents estimated in the development.

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