Self storage facility, affordable homes and supported housing scheme approved

A huge new self storage facility, 50 affordable homes and a supported housing scheme will be built in Tameside after getting the go-ahead from councillors. 

The borough's planning committee voted to approve a series of planning applications across Ashton-under-Lyne at a virtual meeting. 

Plans for a four-storey building covering more than 5,000 sqm of floorspace were given the green light for a site off Rayner Lane, on a ‘prominent plot’ near the roundabout.

The applicant, Storage North Ltd, intends to operate the building as a self storage business, which would create three full time jobs once open.

Vehicles would be able to access the site from the north western boundary, leading from Lord Sheldon Way into a car parking area on the western side of the site. 

Agent Nicole Roe said: “It provides a wide range of economic, social and environmental benefits which include delivering appropriate employment development on a regional investment site.

“The proposal comprises sustainable development by bringing long term vacant brownfield land back into use.

“The development will make a positive contribution towards a healthy and diverse local economy by generation of new employment opportunities.

It represents the first phase of ’employment generating development’ at the Ashton Moss site, she added.

The building would be occupied by SureStore, councillors were told.

A new social housing estate will also be built next to a historic mill after councillors voted in favour of the redevelopment plans for the third time.

The committee granted approval for 50 homes to be built off Bank Street, next to the Grade Two-listed Cavendish Mill.

The proposals by Jigsaw Homes would see 32 one-bedroom apartments within a four-storey mill style apartment block fronting onto the canal.

A further 11 dwellings would be located on a parcel of land in the south west, which would be accessed from Bank Street and run down to Ashton Canal.

A terrace of five units and a pair of semi-detached dwellings would be located on the parcel of land bound by Bank Street, Bentinck Street and Higher Wharf Street.

All of the houses on the site will be within a social tenure and will provide ‘affordable homes for local people’, according to documents.

A new mental health facility will also be built in the town despite Network Rail fearing that its proximity to a train station was a risk to the network.

Existing industrial buildings off Rutland Street are to be demolished and replaced with a three-storey block of flats, in an amended version of plans for a care home which were previously controversially approved by the committee last September.

Rutland Street in Ashton 

What is now a supported housing scheme for people with mental health issues would comprise of 19 one-bedroom flats, with nine car parking spaces.

Network Rail had formally raised issues with the original proposals on behalf of the rail industry’s suicide prevention programme.

They argued that the scheme was placing vulnerable people near the railway line and close to Stalybridge train station, which presents a ‘risk to the rail network’.

With this application, they had raised concerns over the height of the boundary fence, arguing it needed to be ‘trespass proof’.

Councillor Doreen Dickinson, who was the only member to vote against the application, said: “My main concern is that Network Rail have asked for a different type of fencing but that’s obviously not been accepted.

“It’s not just the person affected if a train runs over them, it’s everybody – driver, families, it’s massive.

“So I do have have grave concerns, and it even worries me more the fact that the care would not be as formal.

“If someone killed themselves on that line, I would have to live with that because I passed it when Network Rail had said they don’t think it’s safe. That’s just my personal thought.”

The Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group has a contract with the applicant, charitable organisation Richmond Fellowship, to provide supported accommodation in Tameside.

NHS officials had written in support of the application, which would replace a facility on Manchester Road which is ‘no longer fit for purpose’.

Six objections had been received to the latest application. 

All three applications were approved by the committee, two unanimously.

Main image:

Plans for a new self storage facility in Ashton-under-Lyne. Photo: Tameside Council.