Land agreement to unlock new neighbourhood
A brand new school, desperately-needed homes for hundreds of families as well as new jobs, new business premises and a link road for the north of the city are all in a pipeline thanks to a package of land agreements to be discussed at Cabinet.
Plymouth people will reap the benefits of a deal that will herald the start of a new neighbourhood for Seaton as well as farmland and green fields needed to create a country park.
Cabinet on 10 December will be asked to approve the sale of Council land – together with acquiring NHS and MoD land – to help kick-start the project that will see new facilities spring up. The land agreement will see:
* Up to 873 new homes, leading to approximately £8.3 million New Homes Bonus
* 8,000 sqm business space
* New jobs in a new local shopping centre and up to 275 jobs construction jobs
* £8.2 million of S106 and CIL payments by the developer towards education, highways and the new community park.
* Northern part of Forder Valley Link Road built
* 95 acres of land and farm buildings donated to create a community park
* A donation of almost six acres of land for the southern part of the Forder Valley Link Road
An outline planning application for a mixed use development at Seaton was recommended for approval by the Planning Committee in November. The application was submitted by the Hawkins Trust, which has set up a company called KDR.
While most of the land is owned by or under option to KDR, there are pockets of land owned by the NHS and the MOD which need to be purchased for the project to get underway.
The cabinet paper sets out how a series of land exchange and deals will unlock around £21 million cash and in-kind benefits. As part of the negotiations, all the land value has been ‘equalised’ – calculated on the same rate, so that the main beneficiaries of the deal are the people of Plymouth. It is a primate example of how the Council can use its assets creatively to enable growth.
Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance said: “Anyone who’s been involved in house selling knows there are complex legal processes around them – but it is worth going through with it because you get something at the end.
“This is no different – at the end of all the negotiations and contracts, Plymouth will have a new neighbourhood that will provide hundreds of homes. This city will have acres and acres of field and woodlands as part of a new country park, the list goes on! This is big stuff.”
It also covers securing land for a primary school which already has £4.394 million funding promised under the Government’s Basic Need programme to increase the number of school places in line with the rising birth rate.
The deals will unlock the land needed for the Forder Valley Link Road – and lead the way for more funding necessary for the road which will play a vital part future travel to and from the north of Plymouth. It will improve connectivity, provide additional network capacity and reduces pressure on the A38/A386 junction at Manadon, a key congestion hot-spot in Plymouth.
