Big homes plan dropped for flagship Blackburn estate

The developer behind a flagship multi-million pound Blackburn housing estate has scrapped plans to construct more four-bedroomed homes on it because it cannot sell the ones it has already built.

Cheshire-based Elan Homes originally proposed to build 76 properties on the site of the former Lower Darwen Paper Mill on two parcels of land between Greenbank Terrace and Milking Lane.

The first phase of 45 homes for ‘Tower Gardens’ has been built and marketed but now it has been given planning permission to remove some of the larger houses previously approved got stage two and replace them with more two-bedroomed houses.

This will increase the total number of properties on the 8.64 acre former eyesore site near Junction 4 of the M65 from 76 to 83.

The overall project called ‘Mill Bank’ includes several commercial units and a new spine road.

A report to Blackburn with Darwen Council planning committee which approved the change on Thursday night from planning manager Gavin Prescott said the site had planning permission for up to 100 houses.

But it revealed: “The applicant has explained that they were looking to re-plan the south-eastern parcel of the development to reduce the size of some of the properties to bring the suitability of housing more in line with the sales enquiries they have encountered to date.

“By having smaller units (including some with two beds), the numbers on that particular plot would increase from 31 to 38, with the overall numbers increasing from 76 to 83.

“The access road between Greenbank Terrace and Milking Lane has been fully open for some time now, and the majority of industrial units included have been implemented.

“The proposal seeks to reduce the size of some of the approved housing units on the southern residential plot (the northern plot would remain exactly as previously approved).

“These amendments would alter some of the previously approved larger dwellings to two bed dwellings, to meet market demand.

“This would increase the overall number of dwellings by seven dwellings: the approved number of plots on the southern parcel would increase from 31 to 38, with the overall combined numbers on the two residential plots increasing from 76 to 83.

“This is still well below the maximum figure of 100 dwellings previously established.

“The applicant’s reason for the proposed change is as follows: ‘Whilst construction on the housing on the north-western parcel (Plots one to 45) has gone well, we have struggled with sales and the four bedroom properties in particular. At the time of writing we only have eight occupied plots out of the 45 on this phase.”