Stoke to run rule over 800-home Packmoor proposal

Plans to redevelop a 200-acre plot of council-owned farmland will be decided at Stoke-on-Trent city council’s cabinet next week.

The city council has been eyeing up proposals for Packmoor, a village on the northern fringe of the city, since it declared a plot of agricultural land surplus to requirements in 2023.

Earlier this year, the authority pitched five potential outcomes for the land, which variously proposed building up to 1,200 homes, a new local centre and the potential redevelopment of a number of sports pitches, which are currently leased to Kidsgrove Athletic for academy football.

Following a consultation held in March, the authority has narrowed its available options down to a choice between a single development scheme, or doing nothing and removing the site from the local plan – with the fate of the village set to be decided in a cabinet meeting on 14 July.

Under the preferred development plans, 816 houses would be built, including around 200 affordable rented homes, and specialist accommodation for older people.

More than 800 homes could be built in Packmoor, under proposals set to go before the city council. Credit: Lathams/Tetra Tech

Earlier plans to relocate Kidsgrove Athletic’s community operations elsewhere have been taken off the table for now, although the club’s chief executive Liz Pellington said it was willing to discuss a potential move away from the Packmoor site, should the council wish to include the playing fields as part of the Packmoor housing development in future.

The city council, which has around 3,500 people on its housing waiting list, says the scheme is important for the city’s house-building targets, with the city planning for a minimum of 18,960 new homes over the next 20 years. That equates to an average of 948 homes a year, with the city council also set to decide whether to move forward with its emerging local plan this month.

Masterplan documents and drawings for the scheme have been prepared by Lathams and Tetra Tech. The project team also includes chartered surveyors, Thomas Lister.

If the council decides to press ahead with the scheme, it will seek to appoint a master developer before potentially submitting funding bids to Homes England for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, and National Housing Delivery Fund.

“What’s now in front of cabinet is a genuinely open and balanced decision,” said Cllr Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for growth, regeneration and transport.

“We have to weigh what residents have told us against our responsibility to the 3,500 households on our housing register and the need to plan properly for the city’s future. No decision has been taken in advance. This process has always been about listening, gathering the evidence, and making sure councillors have everything they need to reach the right decision – for Packmoor and for Stoke-on-Trent.”