Mill in flats plan will need £1m clean-up
ADERELICT mill could be turned into a huge residential development but more than £1million will need to be spent to make the site safe from contamination.
Carpenter Investment has submitted a planning application to build 171 flats at Springmount Mill in Cheadle Heath.
It has fallen into disrepair, becoming a magnet for vandalism and drug use, and just last month was made unsafe when yobs broke in and started a fire.
But the site’s past uses, which include a bleachworks, printworks and cotton mill, mean there are ‘very high concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide’ there.
And the high cost of mitigating these problems could mean that little of the proposed development, off Brinksway, is affordable housing.
A report by consultants at The Planning Studio employed by Carpenter Investments says that these circumstances may allow for little or even no affordable housing.
It states: “In the context of the scheme’s commercial viability, the requirement for affordable housing is being carefully considered.
“Taking account of the most recent discovery of very high concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide gas within the site, the mitigation of which is likely to cost £1 million or more, the recommendations of the submitted remediation strategy are to ensure that all proposed buildings for residential development are designed to have gas membranes inserted in the entire ground floor.
“Plainly the requirement to provide gas membranes throughout all buildings used for residential development pre- sents a particularly challenging prospect.”
Buildings at the site, which date back to the early 1800s, are seen as having historical significance and it is planned to retain parts of them.
The development would have three blocks up to eight stories tall with 31 one-bed homes and 140 two-bed.
If the go-ahead is given construction would create 100 jobs.
Public consultation ends on May 21 and a decision is expected by late July.
The Planning Studio report states: “Having been vacant for some considerable time the site currently appears as derelict land with a low environmental value. Redevelopment would bring the site back into active use and remove the negative impacts that the site currently has upon its local environment.”