A 116-home residential development looks set to go ahead on the former World of Pets and World of Water site in Timperley after the planning inspectorate overturned Trafford Council’s decision to refuse the scheme.
Trafford’s planning committee had turned down the £25m plan last March after concluding that it did not “outweigh the harm to the Green Belt”, which makes up around half the 7.2-acre site.
But an appeal to the government’s planning inspectorate by property company Harlex, who acquired the site from Wyevale Garden Centre in 2018, has been successful.
Planning inspector Graham Chamberlain identified an “acute and persistent housing supply shortfall” as a main reason behind his decision, saying that while protecting the Green Belt was “a matter of great importance to the government”, the harm would be “clearly outweighed by the other considerations identified”.
The scheme comprises 95 houses and 21 apartments – 45% of which will be classed as affordable – as well as 186 car parking spaces.
The inspector’s decision does come with a few caveats, including a proper pedestrian crossing by Barkers florists on Thorley Lane and a zebra crossing on Wood Lane.
