‘Build new village in place of vacant eyesore’
A RUNCORN businesswoman has said a proposed retirement village should be moved from Runcorn Hill and instead be built in the place of a vacant eyesore.
Helen Pass, of Homesmart Lettings, writing in her Runcorn Property Blog, said the 45-property village should be constructed where former government building East Lane House stands.
She called for the derelict office’s demolition as part of the project.
Mrs Pass, who has lived in Runcorn for 20 years, told the Weekly News that East Lane House has been an ‘eyesore’ for all those years and longer.
The building’s latest owner Shah Capital And Co has indicated it intends to develop the site.
But Mrs Pass said the building should be bulldozed and ‘this really needs to be done sooner rather than later’.
Moving the retirement village would avoid infringing on green space under existing plans at the edge of Runcorn Hill Park, she said.
SOG, which owns the Heath Business And Technical Park, has filed plans via its SOG Pension Fund subsidiary for a 45-property retirement village on Highlands Road to the chagrin of some residents who oppose losing green space and have raised concerns over traffic and loss of view.
The matter is part of a bundle of applications submitted by SOG including a controversial bid to build a country clubstyle hotel on Heath Road South opposite the business park entrance.
SOG said the developments would open up more green space to public access and create facilities for the neighbourhood.
Arguing in her blog for the project to ● be moved to Halton Lea, Mrs Pass said: “The retirement village would be close and in easy reach of Runcorn Shopping Centre, with its bus routes, shops and health centre – a win for the older residents of Runcorn and a win for everyone else in Runcorn with the removal of this blot on the landscape and bringing back to use an unused site.”
Discussing her concerns over proposals for flats in and around East Lane over in east Runcorn, Mrs Pass told the Weekly News: “It is a shame something wasn’t done sooner to put this land to better use as now it is out of local hands, they are going to make as much money as they can out of it and the more onebed flats they can fit on the land the more money they will make rather than what would be better for the town.
“The land at Weston Village where SOG have submitted their plans, has an infrequent bus service, no shops and no health centre within easy reach.”