Cheshire East Council is looking to dispose of six hectares of land it owns in Handforth, which is considered commercially attractive given its close proximity to Manchester Airport and Greater Manchester.
The land, which is off Earl Road and close to Tesco, Marks and Spencer and BHS, has been held as a strategic employment site for a number of years. It was leased to Airparks UK Ltd and used for airport car parking until 2010 but has been unoccupied since.
In March 2012, a soft market testing exercise was conducted to establish likely demand for this site from the development market and the Council received more than 20 expressions of interest.
The Cabinet gave approval to progress the project in line with the Council's corporate objectives and Local Plan policies at their meeting on Monday, 7th January.
They also agreed to invest up to £130,000 towards the cost of financial appraisal, site investigation and master planning work and commence marketing of serviced plots at the site.
Next Plc has recently submitted a planning application for the construction a new home and garden store, with a conservatory, garden centre, coffee shop and 209 car parking spaces on part of this site. The implications of this planning application will need to be considered in all future decision making.
The report prepared for the Cabinet meeting stated that "From a Cheshire East as landowner perspective, the preferred use for the site is for B1 type development (offices, research & development, and light industry) with the priority being to attract a flagship or blue chip headquarters to the site. In policy terms, B2 (General Industrial) and B8 (Storage & Distribution) uses would also be considered suitable."
Map shows proposed Next store with the remainder of the site to the right of this.
