Welcome to Barratt and David Wilson Homes consultation website for new homes on land at Florida Farm South, Haydock.
Prior to the submission of a planning application Barratt and David Wilson Homes is now seeking feedback on plans for circa 463 new homes, including an affordable provision.
The proposed planning application site forms the major part of an allocation within the recently adopted St Helen’s Local Plan for new homes to meet the local housing need.
Please review the information on the website and provide your feedback via the online questionnaire.
This is the pre-application consultation stage and an opportunity for you to review the proposals and provide your feedback to the project team to consider prior to the submission of the planning application to St Helens Council.
Once the planning application is submitted, there will also be a further opportunity to view the proposals and provide feedback via the Council’s planning portal as part of the formal consultation undertaken by the Council.
Florida Farm is located to the northeast of St Helens town centre within the area of Haydock. The entire site lies immediately to the south of East Lancashire Road, residential development lies to the east, south and west. Farm buildings and associated buildings lie centrally within the site, accessed via Slag Lane, off the East Lancashire Road.
The farm comprises a number of barns, a farmhouse and associated storage space and buildings. A watercourse dissects the site running from northeast to southwest.
The site spans approximately 21ha.
The existing site currently comprises open fields, however, the site is allocated for residential development (under policy LPA04.1) within the St Helen’s Local Plan.
Barratt and David Wilson are well established brands in the local and national marketplace with a track record of developing key flagship schemes. Between our two divisional offices that operate in the North West we delivered in excess of 1,300 homes in the financial year ending June 2022. We are on track to deliver more homes this financial year than ever before and are committed to our growth plans.
Our ability to create added value by constructing highly attractive homes and our track record for delivery means that we are welcomed by Local Authorities and local communities alike. We have a well-established team with a wealth of knowledge and skills in housebuilding who put customers at the heart of everything we do. Every site we develop seeks to enhance the local community by safeguarding the environment, establishing a local supply chain and building high quality homes to a high specification.
Barratt and David Wilson Homes are preparing a full planning application for the erection of dwellings, the creation of site accesses, including associated roads, footways, parking areas, drainage, services, landscaping, walls and fences as well as other associated works, plus demolition of the existing buildings on site.
The proposed development is for circa 463 dwellings which will include a mixture of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom houses.
Policy LPA04.1 of the St Helens Local Plan requires that a masterplan is provided for the whole site.
For this project, the development will be phased with the main site coming forward first, with a small section of the allocated site, to the north of Slag Lane and around the entrance at Vicarage Road, coming forward as a second phase of development at a later stage. Further consultation on this phase will take place at the appropriate time.
The masterplan shows how the full allocation will come forward whilst the more detailed housing layout provides an overview of the layout which will accompany the forthcoming planning application.
The proposals have taken the existing green infrastructure into account to provide a residential development, set within an already mature landscape structure. The objectives of the landscape strategy for the site can be summarised as follows:
Creating Great Places is one of the Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes key priorities in our Building Excellence vision, and demonstrates our dedication to creating the highest quality developments across the UK.
The evolution of the Florida Farm scheme has been guided in part by a number of existing site conditions such as; Disused Mine Shafts, noise from East Lancashire Road and the retention of the existing green infrastructure for the purposes of Biodiversity. The proposed development has both responded to and incorporated these existing site conditions positively to produce a concept that uses on-site conditions to create distinctiveness.
The existing watercourses and hedgerows have been integrated to create green connected areas that provide food and shelter for wildlife. Two new ponds have been created that will form part of a Sustainable Drainage System and provide additional wildlife habit in the form of wetland areas.
The development access points are safely sited on East Lancashire Road to the north and Vicarage Road to the Southwest. The street network provides good circulation for the proposed development areas, with internal loops promoting effective connectivity.
Important consideration has been made as to how to connect into and contribute to the existing walkable network of streets and spaces. Connections have been designed to be direct, obvious and appropriate to the hierarchy of the streets and paths they connect to.
The development seeks to create recognisable street patterns which are consistent with a character concept. The streets and spaces will form a clear hierarchy, using a variety of design elements to signal their relative importance. Character will be created within the different street hierarchies through the use of built form, landscaping and material selection, using a local materials palette that will connect the development to the existing heritage and character of St Helens.
Landmark buildings within the development will be uniquely elevated to serve as focal buildings at the end of long vistas or when located around key locations.
Other than creating character, the streets will also perform a variety of different functions. The Primary and Secondary streets will provide the main arterial routes through the development and will be designed as tree-lined Avenues with rainwater verges containing wildflower planting. Shared surface streets will be pedestrian priority spaces where cars are encouraged to be at very low speeds. Considerate and integrated traffic calming will ensure that all streets are safe for all users.
Character will also be created through the provision of public spaces. Providing places for play will create the physical conditions for activity and bring places to life. Multi-functional green spaces that are close to people’s homes and rich in biodiversity will encourage a variety of uses and support a range of healthy activities. These strategically located areas will be situated in safe, overlooked and tranquil areas of the development.
To promote health and wellbeing, a cycleway will run along the Primary and Secondary streets, allowing access to the existing cycle network on East Lancashire Road in the north and Vicarage Road to the southwest. Dwellings will also be provided with a means of on-plot cycle storage.
Car parking will be carefully integrated into the streetscape, either positioned between the dwellings or to the front. Where positioned on the frontage, the cars will be screened by areas of soft landscaping. Parking courts will be overlooked from adjacent dwellings to ensure good surveillance and to reduce crime.
Vehicular access will be provided off the East Lancashire Road to the north and off Vicarage Road to the south west. Accessibility and connectivity form a key principle design feature in order to provide sufficient links across the site and the wider area.
The road hierarchy consists of a primary spine roads, secondary roads and tertiary private drives. The hierarchy will help to distinguish character areas within the development.
The majority of car parking is located within residential curtilages to the front and side of dwellings,with a number of dwellings also benefiting from private garages.
The existing East Lancashire road access point off Slag Lane will be closed in due course. Slag Lane will remain open for pedestrian use.
A number of transport and highways studies have already been undertaken.
Modelling has been undertaken to supports the site’s residential allocation in the St Helens Local Plan. This showed that when the traffic predicted to be generated by a 600-dwelling development (a higher number of dwellings than will actually be built on the site) was distributed around the highway network, only five key junctions (excluding the two proposed site access junction) were expected to experience an increase of more than one vehicle per minute. The proposed development is significantly below the number of dwellings modelled.
A comprehensive Transport Assessment which will detail the impact of the development on the highway network will be undertaken as part of the planning application.
The development will also be supported by a travel plan which will provide information to future residents regarding sustainable travel and will encourage residents to make their journeys to and from the site using sustainable modes including walking, cycling and public transport. This has the potential to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicle trips to and from the site and minimise the traffic related impact of the proposals, including on congestion.
Overall, the expected level of increase in traffic generated by the proposals is not likely to result in any material impact in terms of congestion. It is likely that the development will not generate a substantial number of new traffic movements, resulting in a moderate to low impact in traffic.
Ecological surveys of the site have been undertaken and no protected species or significant constraints have been identified.
A suite of ecological enhancement measures will be brought forward as part of the scheme, including the provision of Bat and bird boxes, in addition to appropriate tree planting and sensitive landscaping mitigation.
Management of the length of Clipsley Brook within / adjacent to the site boundary will be secured in accordance with the Liverpool City Region Ecological Network Nature Improvement Area Focus Area, Black Brook, and Sankey Valley Corridor.
There will be further engagement with Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service (MEAS) and where possible Biodiversity Net Gain will be secured on-site.
Barratt & David Wilson Homes are committed to ensuring that ecological protection and enhancement form an integral part of any development proposals.
A specialist consultant has been appointed to consider flood risk and drainage matters.
The majority of the site is located within an area outside of the extreme flood extent (Flood Zone 1), meaning it has a less than 0.1% (1 in 1000) annual probability of flooding. The south-eastern extent of the site is located within Flood Zone 2- an area considered to be at flood risk with between a 1% (1 in 100) and 0.1% annual probability of flooding.
Clipsley Brook is located along the southern boundary of the site. A tributary of Clipsley Brook also crosses through the centre of the site, flowing south-east to its confluence with Clipsley Brook at the southern site boundary.
The risk of surface water flooding will be reviewed and any associated flood risk will inform mitigation proposals and site layout considerations.
With regards to drainage all methods of surface water discharge in accordance with National Planning Policy Guidance.
United Utilities will also be consulted with regards to foul drainage from the site, with preference given to discharge into mains drainage.
The development will deliver a number of social, environmental and economic benefits to the local area. These include;
The developer will be a considerate constructor. A planning condition will be included within any planning consent which will require a Construction Environment Management Plan (CEMP) which will be agreed with St Helens Council before construction can start on site. The purpose of the CEMP is to set out how the developer plans to avoid, minimise or mitigate effects on the surrounding environment and local residents living closely to the site.
Barratt and David Wilson Homes (BDW) are national housebuilders with a track record of delivering high quality and complex development projects. BDW are committed to ongoing engagement with local residents at every stage of the process from pre-planning, planning and construction and will put measures in place to ensure construction is carried out with as little disruption as possible to local resident’s everyday lives.
Subject to planning, BDW is aiming to start on site for demolition and remediation towards the end of 2023 with a build period of around 8 years to completion of the development.
Please take a moment to review the information on this website and provide your feedback via the PROVIDE FEEDBACK tab below. All feedback will be considered by the design team and where appropriate incorporated into the final proposals prior to submission.
If you would like to contact the project team you can do so by telephone or e-mail.
The consultation will run between Monday 27th February – Friday 31st March 2023.
