Redrow Community objects to 160 home development in Allerton Priory
A three-week public inquiry has been opened to examine objections to UK housebuilder Redrow's plans for a 160-home development on the Grade II-listed Allerton Priory site in Liverpool. The company said it was an opportunity to construct a "much-needed form of accommodation" and called protesters "misguided". The city council’s planning committee initially rejected the proposal, prompting Redrow to appeal and request a final decision from an independent, government-assigned planning inspector.

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Developers Redrow have described community objections to a development of 160 new homes on the old Allerton Priory site as “misguided.”

A public inquiry started today into the controversial housing plan within a 33-acre field, dubbed by campaigners “possibly the most beautiful green space in Liverpool.”

It follows Liverpool council’s planning committee rejecting the proposals, sparking an appeal by Redrow , who have now asked for an independent Government-assigned planning inspector to make the final decision.

This morning, Paul Tucker QC, for Redrow, told the inquiry: “Perspective is everything.

“On the one hand the appeal site is being painted as a precious area of parkland linked to Allerton Priory whose survival is crucial to the fabric of the mosaic of open land in South Liverpool.

“Whereas, on the other hand, it is a rare opportunity to bring forward a much needed form of accommodation on one of those rare sites in the city which could be used for new family housing in order to help to diversify the city’s housing stock.

“It will be passionately submitted, no doubt, that the proposed housing is not needed and that the appeal site is a parcel of land whose loss will seriously impoverish the heritage of the city (and possibly its wildlife) and that what is proposed therefore comprises unsustainable development.

“With all due respect to those perspectives, viewed dispassionately they are misguided.

“To the contrary it is firmly submitted that the appeal proposals comprise sustainable development and that the planning balance decisively weighs in favour of the grant of permission.”

The Allerton Priory application does not form part of the council’s £205m deal with Redrow as their preferred housing partner to build 1,500 homes and bring up to 1,000 properties back into use over the next five years.

Liverpool council, with David Manley QC representing them, have made it clear the local authority does not want the blueprints to go ahead, and Mayor Joe Anderson has previously given his backing to the Save Allerton Priory campaign.

The public inquiry, sitting at Liverpool’s Cunard Building, is set to last at least three weeks, with a break in late October meaning it runs into November.

Mr Tucker, for Redrow, said: “{This} is undeveloped land adjacent to two roads within South Liverpool.

“The boundary wall and the extensive mature vegetation are highly visible features when viewed from Allerton Road or Woolton Road.

“Beyond those features, there are occasional glimpsed views of the fields beyond which comprise the appeal site.

“The fields themselves do not comprise an important part of the street scene from either the adjacent land or from the parkland which lies to the east of the appeal site.

“In landscape terms, as Mr Grimshaw {landscape expert for Redrow} demonstrates, the appeal site presently exhibits little visual influence beyond those well treed borders.

“It is, with respect, an affectation to suggest that the change within the appeal site will have a harmful effect to the amenity of public views beyond it.

“As ‘passive’ open space, therefore, the appeal site’s attributes are grossly overstated other than when viewed cartographically or from the air.

“The appeal site has in the past been used as private open space for the children of the school whose playing fields once extended across it, but there has never been any lawful unrestricted public access to the appeal site.

“Thus, any value that the site may have to those who have unlawfully accessed as “open space” should be afforded no weight...

“Rather, the appeal proposals will provide free public access to almost six hectares of open land and and offer a benefit in accordance with the open space policies of the plan.”

Adrian Thompson, representing Save Allerton Priory (SAP), told the inquiry that SAP would speak about “the harm the appeal scheme would cause to the visual amenity value of the Green Space and Green Wedge.”

The inquiry continues.