Stretford Mall apartments plan set to be approved

A council looks set to approve plans for an apartment block it is building despite it falling outside its own development guidelines.

Trafford Council is jointly applying for permission to build 251 apartments at the former Stretford Mall site.

A planning report said that there would be no affordable homes in the scheme, no new parking spaces, and that the project would be of a "substantially greater density" than the council's own policies allowed.

But the authority said it would be the most dense phase of the wider regeneration scheme, which overall would be within the rules.

Stretford Mall opened in 1969 as the Stretford Arndale, and was one of the largest shopping centres of its type in the UK.

It faced significant competition from the 2000s onwards from the nearby Trafford Centre, and in 2023 Trafford Council and developer Bruntwood joined forces to create a development plan for the site.

The mall closed down in February and is currently being demolished.

The apartment block will be 10 storeys high and next to a multi-storey car park.

While the 120 one-bed, 115 two-bed and 16 three-bed flats will not have parking spaces, 62 parking permits will be available for the car park next door.

Objections raised by local residents were over the lack of parking and the "excessive and unjustified" height of the buildings.

The council said the various heights of the buildings would help it "avoid [being] a monotonous, unbroken 'wall' of development".

The planning officer's report said the scheme would mean the regeneration of a prominent brownfield site and provide a "good quality large public park" and construction jobs during the building phase.

While including affordable homes in this stage of the scheme would make it "unviable", a quarter of the overall regeneration scheme would be affordable, the report added.

The council's planning committee will decide on the plans on Thursday.

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