Cop a home! Plan for houses at old police HQ

PLANS to develop a Greater Manchester Police site into new homes are set to be decided.

At a meeting yesterday, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is seeking approval to enter into a joint venture with Trafford council to own the Chester Road site and bring a yetundecided developer on board.

The GMCA needs to also agree investing £642,500 into the scheme, to be underwritten by the authority’s police and crime reserve funds.

The plan is to create new homes on the site once a developer partner is brought on and the scheme is aiming to be a net zero carbon development.

The 3.57-hectare site is currently owned outright by the GMCA and forms part of the GMP/GMCA estate and was the former location of the GMP headquarters known as Chester House.

The site is currently occupied by a GMP data centre and a communications branch. GMP have previously declared the site as surplus to their operational requirements and have agreed to vacate the premises.

The site has since been included in the Trafford Civic Quarter Area Action Plan, which is set to overhaul the area from Old Trafford football ground to the town hall – including more than 750 new homes, a 100-bedroom hotel, new shops, offices and other community facilities. The aim is to provide 25 per cent affordable housing on the site, which is well connected to the rest of Greater Manchester thanks to its proximity to the Metrolink.

Due to a disused rail tunnel under part of the site Civic Quarter site, the GMCA has budgeted a further £5m for ‘abnormal costs’ that are ‘inevitably’ going to emerge while the site is developed.

Overall, the GMP Chester Road site is set to contribute a £11.2m levy fee towards the Civic Quarter site development. Over the next financial year, Trafford council and the GMCA are set to split the legal, marketing and procurement costs associated with the GMP site development – set to total £270,000.

Then over the 2023-24 financial year, the authorities will split the costs associated with the planning application, construction design, site investigations and energy strategy – totalling £1.015m – which will then be matched by the chosen developers.

Trafford council and the GMCA hope to appoint a developer by as early as April 2022 – it is understood there has already been interest expressed in the site by a number of developers.