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Riverside plans ‘still a goer’

Tom Rowley
30/ 8/2006

A £6M riverside redevelopment in Glossop town centre rejected once by councillors is now back on the agenda.

The Landbank company has re-submitted a proposal for 37 retirement apartments plus shops, offices, leisure units and 12 parking spaces on a brownfield site within Norfolk Square Conservation Area.

Director Traci Lomas says they have come up with new figures showing potential benefits to the town.

She said: "This scheme is a major town centre redevelopment and we have worked five years on this. Council officers had recommend the scheme should go ahead."

She said the 37 apartments for the elderly would free up housing elsewhere in the town. She also hopes the scheme will include tea rooms and arts and crafts shops - like those in Harrogate - which would boost tourism.

The site is flanked by Chapel Street, Market Street, Glossop Brook and the George Street clinic. The previous application also included a £30,000 offer to Glossop Community Transport to help it relocate from its Chapel Street base and car park.

Councillor Chris Webster, secretary of the transport group - which ferrys the elderly and disabled around High Peak - said: "The offer related to the last application and we have still to hear whether it relates to this one.

"It was a generous offer but we still have a major concern over the loss of our car park and we would still need to find a town centre site as we are hoping to start a Shopmobility scheme. We've been there 22 years and our elderly folk know where to come too."

Mrs Lomas thinks that planners when they last met were swayed by arguments that the profit margin cited in an independent surveyors report was enough to pay for affordable housing within the scheme.

She added: "We are hopeful we can give councillors a further explanation of our figures, which would allow the committee to re-evaluate their decision and look at the benefits it would bring to the town."