RESIDENTS have expressed concerns over plans to build 160 homes on the site of Wilderspool Stadium.

The £25m Wire Regeneration scheme would see 56 houses and 104 apartments built on land that was home to Warrington Wolves for more than 100 years, before the opening of the Halliwell Jones Stadium in 2004.

But residents of Fletcher Street and Priory Street are concerned that their roads will act as the main access points to the development, named Bevan Mews after Wire legend Brian Bevan.

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Julie Glynn, coordinator of the Wilderspool Homewatch group, said: “We’ve no objection to the housing estate, just to the access.

“Priory Street and Fletcher Street are not wide enough to be the main access points to a housing estate.

Warrington Guardian:

Plans for the new Bevan Mews estate

“Fletcher Street is double parked all day and cars are always parked all down one side of Priory Street.

“Then Wilderspool Causeway is gridlocked every morning and night for about three hours - you can’t get out of the end of the street at certain times.

“There are going to be 160 dwellings, so we’re talking about 200 extra cars - it will result in total disruption, it’s crazy.”

A joint venture between Warrington Brough Council and developer Langtree, Bevan Mews is planned as the first phase of a proposal to ‘transform the southern gateway’ to the town centre.

Julie, a resident of Fletcher Street, added: “We met with the developers a couple of weeks ago and got a load of spiel from them.

“We’ve asked them if they could redirect the traffic - at least the construction traffic - through their own land near the bus depot.

“They say they will try to do this if the contractors agree, but they should give the contract stipulating that they will do this.”

Wilderspool Stadium was demolished in 2014, with a Warrington Wolves academy side having played the final game at the ground in May of that year.

Commenting on residents’ concerns, a spokesman for Wire Regeneration, the joint venture between Warrington Borough Council and Langtree tasked with redeveloping the town’s Southern Gateway, said:

“We’ve given a lot of thought to how we can mitigate traffic impacts from the development and have consulted with representatives of the local residents and their ward councillors as part of this process.

“An independent team of traffic consultants was commissioned to look at the junctions of Fletcher Street and Priory Street and to calculate the impact of the traffic generated by the proposed new homes on their junction with Wilderspool Causeway and also on the Brian Bevan roundabout.  They used a standard industry model accepted by councils across the country and the studies were undertaken at peak periods.

“The results told us that we needed to enhance the existing visibility at the junctions of Priory and Fletcher streets so we are proposing a pavement build-out to achieve this.  They also demonstrated that the impact at peak hours on the Brian Bevan roundabout would be negligible.

“As part of our consultation with local residents we have agreed to provide 12 additional on-street car parking spaces for existing residents of Fletcher and Priory streets.

“Should the scheme be granted planning permission then the construction period will bring additional traffic so we have produced a traffic management plan that will seek to mitigate its impact on local people. 

"We’re exploring how we can provide a temporary access to the site during the construction period which would minimise impacts on Priory and Fletcher streets.”

A consultation on the plans runs until Thursday, November 29.