Plans approved to build 140 homes off Loushers Lane in Latchford

The 16-acre site in question is off Loushers Lane in Latchford, occupied by a tanker depot and woodland on the former Latchford Sidings and Black Bear Park, and close to Priestley College.

Planning documents state that the new housing estate would ‘effectively reuse’ a brownfield site and transform ‘under-used, low quality greenfield land of limited environmental quality’.

This vision was seemingly shared by Warrington Borough Council’s planning department who subsequently approved planning permission for the proposal.

As well as homes, applicant Premier Loushers Ltd has been granted approval for an access road off Loushers Lane, with all other detailed matters reserved for subsequent approval at a later stage.

Plans, submitted back in July 2019, proposed to construct 110 houses and 30 flats on the brownfield area of the site.

The site of the proposal off Loushers Lane in Latchford. Picture: Brock Carmichael/Premier Loushers Ltd

It also looked to improve the retained part of Latchford Sidings in terms of its ‘amenity, accessibility and ecological value’.

In a design and access statement, it was proposed that the opportunity would make an ‘important’ contribution to the council’s supply of deliverable housing.

It states that the land is occupied by a business which ‘can’t survive’ due to poor HGV transport links alongside ‘overgrown and inaccessible grassland’ which was formerly used as a sports pitch.

Other areas of the site are overgrown industrial railway sidings which fell into disuse in the Post-Second World War period.

Plans add that the site is ‘ideally placed within an already residential environment’, with full infrastructure and transport links to support the scheme.

There is also an ‘opportunity to provide suburban woodland with a formal extension to Black Bear Park’, encompassing semi-formal footpath and cycleway networks.