PLANS have now been submitted for 99 new homes on former Green Belt land in Widnes.

The World reported in May how Prospect Homes was putting together a planning application for 99 properties at Abbey Farm off South Lane in the north of the town. It has now submitted the application to Halton Council’s Development Management Committee.

The area used to be in the Green Belt – a protected area designed to guard against too much urban development. But those protections were removed when the council adopted its new Delivery and Allocations Local Plan (DALP) in March - a document which sets out the borough’s future planning strategy up to 2037. Council chiefs said it was the only way for the borough to meet its targets for new housing as it had insufficient pre-developed ‘brownfield’ land to build on.

Since then, Redrow has also announced plans to build nearly 500 properties in the area, with 441 earmarked for 52 acres of farmland north of Derby Road, and a further 52 properties nearby on a five acre plot also to the south of South Lane.  Developer Miller Homes has also submitted a planning application for 317 properties on 32 acres of land north of Lunt's Heath Road.

In addition to the North Widnes developments, Harworth Group is also planning 500 properties, local centre, primary school and elderly living facility to the west of Hale Gate Road and south of Halebank Road, which is also former Green Belt land. If each of the planned schemes is rubber-stamped, it would mean a combined total of almost 1,100 new homes being built across Widnes.

The Prospect Homes scheme seeks permission for a housing estate on nearly nine acres of disused farmland. It includes two, three and four bedrooms houses – 20% of which would be designated as ‘affordable’.

A design and access statement submitted in support of the plans, said: “The development will achieve a sensitive and robust solution to the relationship between existing and proposed dwellings and create a sense of place, which includes house types that reference the local architectural language and blend seamlessly with the neighbouring areas."

It added: "Prospect Homes has a proven track record of providing high-quality aspirational housing built to latest building regulations, and this scheme has been designed in a way which delivers a fundamentally sustainable and superior environment.”

No date has yet been set for a decision.