A new £4.5m canalside development in Altrincham will see the creation of 16 houses, a community centre and a new home for Trafford Rowing Club.
Plans for the development were this week submitted to Trafford Council by SixTwo architects after a consultation process with local residents led by Trafford Housing Trust.
Located on predominantly unused land near Stokoe Avenue in Oldfield Brow, the development – which has the working title The Oldfield Centre – will provide a new base for the currently homeless Seamons Moss Community Association.
The association, which has been without a formal home for around seven years, is largely funding the new centre itself. A new café forms part of the plans.
Below: The proposed Oldfield Centre
Meanwhile, the part of the development nearest to the Bridgewater Canal will become the new home of the Trafford Rowing Club, which is currently based in a rundown facility in Walton Park in Sale.
A terrace on top of the boat club will provide space for spectators and other visitors to watch the rowers in action on the canal.
There will also be a number of shared facilities separating the club and the community association, such as a kitchen and showers.
Located close to the development will be 16 new houses – 10 will be detached three or four-bed houses on the canalside, with three sets of semi-detached houses running adjacent to the community centre.
Below: A diagram showing the new centre and housing development
The canalside houses will all be available to buy on the open market, with a decision yet to be made on whether the additional six will be open market or be part of some kind of shared ownership or assisted buying scheme.
Overseeing the project is Paul Westhead, senior development manager for Trafford Housing Trust.
He said: “This has been several years in the making. It provides a superb new base for both the community association and Trafford Rowing Club, and hopefully will bring back into use an open space that has been used ineffectively in recent years, and equally will provide some enhanced quality housing for the Altrincham community.”
The majority of the site is a former allotment area that is currently inaccessible. Part of the rowing club element of the development will encroach on a current open space – known locally as the Cow Field – but the Trust believes it is not particularly well used and that the development will only serve to enhance it and the play areas on it.
Some local residents have already raised objections to the proposed loss of part of the Cow Field, with a petition protesting at the loss of the “only green space left in the area”.
As part of the development – which will cost in the region of £4-4.5m – the canal frontage and the drainage of the land will be improved.
The Trust is also proposing to put a sum of the available money aside now so that the local community can decide on exactly what additional facilities they would like on the site when it is completed.
Assuming the planning process runs smoothly, it’s expected that construction work will begin on the site in late summer 2015.
Below: A view of the canal near to the proposed development (Google Street View), and artist’s impressions of the centre.
