Go-ahead for 325,000 sq ft Billingham industrial
Outline plans have been approved for the former golf course, south of Charlton Close, updating a 2020 consent.
Applicant Osborne House is advised by planner The Planning Consultancy and architect the Bunting Partnership, along with SAJ Transport Consultants.
Two potential layouts remain in play: a single unit accounting for all the space consented, or a scheme of smaller buildings, led by a pair of 100,000 sq ft sheds.
Ahead of Stockton-on-Tees Council’s planning committee meeting last week, officers recommended approval with conditions, summarising that “the application would bring forward sustainable development on an unused area of land within the established urban area”.
Contuinuing, the officers said: “Whilst not in complete accordance with the specific policies in the local plan, the development will accord with the National Planning Policy Framework and the local plan in terms of sustainable development and the reuse of land.”
The site has some planning history: in 2016 proposals for 27 homes on part of the site were refused due to proximity of hazardous installations, a decision upheld at appeal.
Subsequently, plans were put in for 325,000 sq ft of industrial & logistics space – although approved in 2020, that consent has now expired, hence the new submission.
Osborne House’s site has been unused for 20 years, having housed a golf course in the 1990s. In its planning statement, The Planning Consultancy said that “given the unsuitability of the site for residential purposes, employment development on the site is the obvious alternative use, especially given the location of the Belasis Technology Park immediately opposite the site on Greenwood Road”.