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A mixed-use scheme of approximately 15,800 sq ft commercial space and six apartments has been granted planning approval as part of the ongoing Woodford Garden Village.
Proposed on the site of the disused Woodford Aerodrome and former Bodycote Heat Treatment Works on Stockport’s outskirts, the two storey building will form part of a new district centre for the garden village development, bringing additional retail space close to the existing Aviator Pub, and nearby garden centre and Budgens supermarket on Chester Road.
Woodford Garden Village developers, Redrow, who have already brought forward over 900 homes on the site, have had approved plans for a convenience store with 4,600 sq ft retail space, and further 5,800 sq ft of additional commercial units at street level. Six two-bedroom apartments will occupy the first floor of the scheme, with car parking for residents at the rear of the building and accessible from Verdon Roe Avenue.
Approval for the scheme follows previous deferral by councillors over a lack of detail provided in the designs
In a meeting of Stockport Council’s Planning & Highways Regulation Committee, which took place on Thursday 9th February, councillors gave permission for Redrow to go ahead with the mixed use scheme. Despite finding no reason to reject the proposals, councillors expressed their displeasure with certain aspects of the proposals. Councillors echoed the concerns of residents that the buildings were not in keeping with the architectural style of others in Woodford, but instead drawing on the site’s aeronautical heritage in the design of the building’s ‘aeroplane wing’ roof.
The scheme also proposed no new affordable homes, as it provides too few properties to require them, however, planners welcomed the smaller 2-bedroom apartments as helping to meet a shortage of smaller properties in Woodford.