MAZE Planning Solutions is marking 10 years in business this month, reflecting on a busy and tumultuous period for the property industry.
Thank you to everyone who has played a part in helping the business reach this milestone as we look forward to the next 10 years with equal relish and enthusiasm.
The first 10 MAZE projects - a quick run through the filing cabinet in late 2003 and where the schemes ended up:
001 - Red City, Salford: providing retail impact work for what is now Salford City Stadium and associated retail warehouse development at Barton. The retail element is yet to be built.
002 - West Bowling, Bradford: a B&Q Warehouse store to kick start a major business park development for Landmark Development Projects. Bradford Council liked it but the Secretary of State had other ideas and refused planning permission after a call-in inquiry. The site is now home to Prologis Park, anchored by M&S's enourmous distribution warehouse.
003 - Electric Park, Trafford Park, Manchester: a major employment regeneration scheme for Green Property, now home to Kellogg's 35,000 square metre distribution warehouse and L'Oreal amongst others.
004 - Durham City Retail Park: a 20,000 square metre retail warehouse, restaurant and car showroom scheme for Consolidated Property Group, secured after a lengthy multi-party call-in inquiry. The scheme was up and running soon after approval, with B&Q anchoring.
005 - Chester Road, Manchester: an ambitious Ian Simpson designed glass-clad apartment scheme providing 90 units in the Castlefield basin, promoted for Sterling Capitol. Approved at the same planning committee as the nearby Deansgate Tower, but ultimately confined to the drawing board. The site was sold on and remains vacant today.
006 - St Anne Street, Liverpool: another 90 unit inner city apartment scheme, which this time failed to impress the City Planners, concerned about scale and density. The site remains in industrial use.
007 - Thornaby District Centre, Stockton-On-Tees: £30m town centre transformation project for Thornfield Developments and Stockton Council, approved and built before Thornfield's demise and now occupied by Home Bargains, Wilkinson and others.
008 - New Road, Crook: 57 houses and 1400sqm of office space for Wolff Developments to replace ageing warehouse and factory premises and provide access to a landlocked employment development allocation. Housing now built and sold.
009 - Dunnings Bridge Road, Bootle: working with JMP Consultants on behalf of the Highways Agency to appraise Ikea's proposals for its first Merseyside store. Ikea pulled the plug in December 2005 when the Secretary of State intervened in Sefton Council's decision to grant planning permission.
010 - Altrincham Town Centre: working as part of the Sterling Capitol team to win and then almost immediately lose preferred developer status for regeneration of land at Oakfield Road after political wrangling at Trafford Council caused havoc. Now under Nikal's control the 'Altrair' scheme has recently been reinvigorated and looks set to progress.
Showing posts with label MAZE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MAZE. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Friday, 1 June 2012
Rossendale United - Planning Application Imminent
Coverage in this week's Lancashire Telegraph confirms that preparations for submission of a planning application for housing development on the former Rossendale United football ground are at an advanced stage.
MAZE Planning Solutions is leading the application process, following on from public consultation undertaken during the spring which sought feedback on the proposed 50 home development.
Click here to read the Lancashire Telegraph Article.
MAZE Planning Solutions is leading the application process, following on from public consultation undertaken during the spring which sought feedback on the proposed 50 home development.
Click here to read the Lancashire Telegraph Article.
The Importance of Proof
If, like Maze Planning, you are involved in making or determining 'prior approval' applications for development, the landscape has just changed.
The 'prior approval' process is most commonly used for telecoms masts and antennae, agricultural and forestry development, and before demolition of buildings, to give local planning authorities an opportunity to consider if the proposal is Permitted Development (ie not requiring an application for planning permission) and that the details of the particular scheme, such as those relating to siting and materials, are acceptable.
The requirement to seek 'prior approval' is matched by strict time limits which local authorities must adhere to when dealing with the submission. If a local authority sends no notification within the specified time limit, then the prior approval process is deemed to have been satisfied and the development can go ahead in the form submitted.
A recent legal case has directed that a local authority must be able to prove that it sent a timely response if it is later to rely on that to query the development concerned. In effect, nothing short of recorded delivery will do to ensure there is proof of both sending and subsequent receipt by the applicant.
The cases in Walsall and Dartford both concerned telecoms mast development, where the local authorities had come to the view that the proposed development was not Permitted Development, and should be rejected. Letters to that effect were posted but the applicants later said they were never received, so they pressed ahead with the mast installations. The judge concluded that the local authority notifications could not be deemed to have been properly served at the time of posting because it was key that the relevant information reached the applicant - the simple act of posting did not guarantee that outcome, and was refutable evidence.
Applicants are not going to actively pursue the receipt of timely prior approval decisions because it is to their advantage that the prescribed determination period passes without event, so the responsibility, and burden of proof for timely notification, rests firmly with the determining authority.
There are alternatives to recorded delivery notification - good old fax, if that line of communication is available, and email, so long as there's a follow up mechanism in place to ensure that the email is received by the correct person / organisation and acknowledged within the statutory time limit. Rightly or wrongly, anything less robust can quite simply be denied by the Applicant.
The 'prior approval' process is most commonly used for telecoms masts and antennae, agricultural and forestry development, and before demolition of buildings, to give local planning authorities an opportunity to consider if the proposal is Permitted Development (ie not requiring an application for planning permission) and that the details of the particular scheme, such as those relating to siting and materials, are acceptable.
The requirement to seek 'prior approval' is matched by strict time limits which local authorities must adhere to when dealing with the submission. If a local authority sends no notification within the specified time limit, then the prior approval process is deemed to have been satisfied and the development can go ahead in the form submitted.
A recent legal case has directed that a local authority must be able to prove that it sent a timely response if it is later to rely on that to query the development concerned. In effect, nothing short of recorded delivery will do to ensure there is proof of both sending and subsequent receipt by the applicant.
The cases in Walsall and Dartford both concerned telecoms mast development, where the local authorities had come to the view that the proposed development was not Permitted Development, and should be rejected. Letters to that effect were posted but the applicants later said they were never received, so they pressed ahead with the mast installations. The judge concluded that the local authority notifications could not be deemed to have been properly served at the time of posting because it was key that the relevant information reached the applicant - the simple act of posting did not guarantee that outcome, and was refutable evidence.
Applicants are not going to actively pursue the receipt of timely prior approval decisions because it is to their advantage that the prescribed determination period passes without event, so the responsibility, and burden of proof for timely notification, rests firmly with the determining authority.
There are alternatives to recorded delivery notification - good old fax, if that line of communication is available, and email, so long as there's a follow up mechanism in place to ensure that the email is received by the correct person / organisation and acknowledged within the statutory time limit. Rightly or wrongly, anything less robust can quite simply be denied by the Applicant.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Medical Practice Approved for Bury
Indigo Healthcare will be bringing its private primary health care services to Bury following approval earlier this week of its proposals to take occupation of Hilton House. The town centre building, located on Irwell Street next to Castle Leisure Centre, had been empty for several months following the departure of the Council's Children's Services team.
Indigo is relocating from the neighbouring borough of Rossendale and expects to create a number of new jobs when the practice is established in its new home.
MAZE Planning Solutions handled the planning application for change of use of the building, assisted by FuZED Architecture + Design.
Indigo is relocating from the neighbouring borough of Rossendale and expects to create a number of new jobs when the practice is established in its new home.
MAZE Planning Solutions handled the planning application for change of use of the building, assisted by FuZED Architecture + Design.
Monday, 2 April 2012
Concert Events Approved at Globe Arena
Morecambe Football Club's plans for music concerts at its Globe Arena stadium have been approved today by Lancaster City Council's planning committee. The permission comes after 9 months of negotiation and discussion led by MAZE Planning Solutions, required to overcome a wide range of concerns about noise, traffic and event management raised by the local authority, police and Lancashire County Council.
Morecambe FC will be allowed to hold three days of live music events each year, with the potential to attract up to 12,000 music fans each day. It's likely the event will take the form of a festival spanning 2 or 3 consecutive days during the closed football season so full use can be made of the stadium
Most Planning Committee Members were keen to enable an event to be held to capture tourism benefits for the resort, balancing that against the need to protect the amenity of local residents. A temporary planning permission has been given, which allows the Football Club's commitment to good working practices for event management and noise control to be demonstrated.
MAZE led the planning process, assisted by the Manchester office of Hepworth Acoustics, which provided specialist noise modelling expertise.
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Rossendale United - Public Consultation
MAZE has launched a public consultation exercise to help shape development proposed at the former home of Rossendale United Football Club in the Newchurch area of Rossendale Borough.
Rossendale United ceased to be an active football club at the end of the 2009/10 season. Significant debts had amassed and the consequent inability to pay the day-to-day bills led to expulsion from the Vodkat League.
The Club's pitch and associated facilities at Dark Lane have become a target for vandalism and anti-social behaviour. On 15 January this year the main stand was devastated in an arson attack.
It has become increasingly urgent and important to identify a positive future for the ground to prevent it becoming a serious blight on the local community, and to remove the risks and dangers of a repeat of the recent fire.
The consultation exercise seeks to do that by encouraging the local community and other interest groups to get involved. The consultation was launched on 14 February and runs until the 7th March 2012. It asks for feedback on a proposed family housing development of about 50 units, together with ideas for an associated 'sporting legacy'.
Further details: www.darklanedevelopments.co.uk
Rossendale United ceased to be an active football club at the end of the 2009/10 season. Significant debts had amassed and the consequent inability to pay the day-to-day bills led to expulsion from the Vodkat League.
The Club's pitch and associated facilities at Dark Lane have become a target for vandalism and anti-social behaviour. On 15 January this year the main stand was devastated in an arson attack.
It has become increasingly urgent and important to identify a positive future for the ground to prevent it becoming a serious blight on the local community, and to remove the risks and dangers of a repeat of the recent fire.
The consultation exercise seeks to do that by encouraging the local community and other interest groups to get involved. The consultation was launched on 14 February and runs until the 7th March 2012. It asks for feedback on a proposed family housing development of about 50 units, together with ideas for an associated 'sporting legacy'.
Further details: www.darklanedevelopments.co.uk
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Planning Myth? You Decide
Planning's a pretty topical media subject at the moment, with the reform of national planning guidance being hailed as a developers charter and the planning system declared as an overweight ball of red tape that ties its users in knots and generally gets in the way of all that's good about development for our economy.
Clearly miffed at some of some of the negative press its Members have been getting, The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has instigated a campaign to dispel some of the more prevalent planning myths:
- The default response to a planning application is a resounding 'no';
- Planning is slow
- Planning is costly;
- The planning system is a drag on economic growth
- It forces house prices up
If any of this sounds familiar or touches a nerve, you might want to take a minute to check out the RTPI's website for the full story. Planning myth? You decide:
http://www.rtpi.org.uk/download/12742/Planning-Myths.pdf
Clearly miffed at some of some of the negative press its Members have been getting, The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has instigated a campaign to dispel some of the more prevalent planning myths:
- The default response to a planning application is a resounding 'no';
- Planning is slow
- Planning is costly;
- The planning system is a drag on economic growth
- It forces house prices up
If any of this sounds familiar or touches a nerve, you might want to take a minute to check out the RTPI's website for the full story. Planning myth? You decide:
http://www.rtpi.org.uk/download/12742/Planning-Myths.pdf
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Morecambe FC 'On Song'
MAZE Planning Solutions is working with its established client, Morecambe Football Club, to bring an exciting new music event to the town, which would be hosted at the club's Globe Arena stadium. Proposals are being worked up for a 2 or 3 day music festival which it is hoped could become an annual event in July each year, starting in 2012.
MAZE has submitted a planning application to Lancaster City Council to vary an existing planning condition which currently restricts use of the stadium to sporting events only. Understandably it's a cause of concern to some local residents worried about noise and crowds, but the Football Club is well used to managing events and will be working with specialist concert promoters and managers to ensure the process runs smoothly.
The planning application is supported by Noise Assessment work undertaken by specialist adviser, Hepworth Acoustics, and it's proposed that events will comply with the Noise Council's Code of Practice for noise control at concerts, a nationally recognised standard of good practice.
Development of the visitor economy in Morecambe, including festivals and other such special events, is a key corporate priority for Lancaster City Council. Events at Globe Arena would raise the town's profile as a leisure destination, encourage more visitors to the District and bring with it expenditure on overnight stays, eating out, shopping and related activities to boost local businesses.
It's hoped that planning permission will be granted shortly so that preparations for the inaugural 2012 event can be put in motion.
MAZE has submitted a planning application to Lancaster City Council to vary an existing planning condition which currently restricts use of the stadium to sporting events only. Understandably it's a cause of concern to some local residents worried about noise and crowds, but the Football Club is well used to managing events and will be working with specialist concert promoters and managers to ensure the process runs smoothly.
The planning application is supported by Noise Assessment work undertaken by specialist adviser, Hepworth Acoustics, and it's proposed that events will comply with the Noise Council's Code of Practice for noise control at concerts, a nationally recognised standard of good practice.
Development of the visitor economy in Morecambe, including festivals and other such special events, is a key corporate priority for Lancaster City Council. Events at Globe Arena would raise the town's profile as a leisure destination, encourage more visitors to the District and bring with it expenditure on overnight stays, eating out, shopping and related activities to boost local businesses.
It's hoped that planning permission will be granted shortly so that preparations for the inaugural 2012 event can be put in motion.
Leo Group - Website Launch
The Leo Group is one of the UK's leading environmental companies, playing a major role in waste management, recycling and renewable energy. MAZE Planning Solutions is proud to have worked alongside Leo Group since 2007 on various projects, including Bronte Business Park (Bradford), and the company's rendering plants at Kintore (Aberdeenshire) and Penrith.
During that relatively short period of time we've watched the company grow and mature as it continues to invest in innovative technology to recover, reuse and recycle almost anything, and create valuable products, commodities and clean energy in the process.
Leo Group has recently launched a new website profiling the company's activities throughout the UK and Europe. Its property portfolio is diverse, comprising over 1,500 acres of land and 600,000sqft of buildings.
The company is seeking new opportunities throughout the UK and Europe to add to its portfolio.
To learn more about our client go to http://www.leogroupltd.co.uk/ or click on the link below to view a Special Supplement recently published by Yorkshire Post Newspapers profiling the company.
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=Me206B1ip14D&EID=2d8ff77a-6594-4ee2-a744-dace686e210f&skip
During that relatively short period of time we've watched the company grow and mature as it continues to invest in innovative technology to recover, reuse and recycle almost anything, and create valuable products, commodities and clean energy in the process.
Leo Group has recently launched a new website profiling the company's activities throughout the UK and Europe. Its property portfolio is diverse, comprising over 1,500 acres of land and 600,000sqft of buildings.
The company is seeking new opportunities throughout the UK and Europe to add to its portfolio.
To learn more about our client go to http://www.leogroupltd.co.uk/ or click on the link below to view a Special Supplement recently published by Yorkshire Post Newspapers profiling the company.
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=Me206B1ip14D&EID=2d8ff77a-6594-4ee2-a744-dace686e210f&skip
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Malvern Retail Park Extension
Permission is on its way for an extension of Malvern Retail Park following successful passage through Planning Committee on 15 June. The extension will provide 1,960sqm (21,000sqft) of open A1 retail space and a 140sqm coffee designed as a contemporary bookend to the established retail terrace.
The prime retail park is owned by Alderley Edge based Consolidated Property Group and is fully let. Tenants include M&S, Next and Matalan. The new space is being provided as part of a planned programme of asset management at the park, which was acquired by CPG on 2009 and includes additional parking and access improvements.
MAZE Planning Solutions led the planning application process, supported by inputs from RGP Architects, CBO Transport, Warrington Martin, and Oakbay Design. Savills are letting and managing agents.
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