Council and cabinet to ponder 15-year development scheme

HULL’S Holderness Road will become one of the first to benefit from a 15-year development strategy under proposals to be considered by Hull Council leader Carl Minns and his cabinet next Monday.

Redeveloping the area is regarded as a key to the success of making the city a better place to live and two years has been spent consulting the community about what could happen, officials say.

For the scheme, Hull Council teamed up with Gateway, the regeneration agency responsible for reviving Hull’s housing market and Gateway’s main builder, Bellway homes, and leading social landlord Chevin Housing.

The council says having a foot in the private sector has ensured the plan remains realistic so they can deliver the vision in solid bricks and mortar.

Although covering a large area, the scheme has three centres – Holderness Road and New Bridge Road, Ings, and Preston Road together with its surrounding area.

The vision for Ings is for an urban village similar to Sutton. This will involve demolishing about 650 properties and building more than 1,500 new homes on sites that include the former Princess Royal Hospital and Lambwath School.

Proposals for housing on the edges of Bluebell Fields have now been abandoned so improvements to this and a number of green spaces are proposed.

The vision for the Preston Road area is housing within a network of natural green open spaces and strong pedestrian and cycling connections.

About 1,200 properties will be demolished to make way for more than 2,450 new houses including the Greif site and the area to the north of the village centre.

Holderness Road and New Bridge Road will be the heart of an area with high quality shops and houses. Here, 130 homes will be demolished while about 2,000 others are improved.

The council says 100 formal representations were received during the six weeks of formal consultations – which also involved face-to-face discussions with more than 200 residents and local businesses.

“Overall, the proposed transformation of neighbourhoods across the area seems welcome now,” said Mark Jones, head of economic development and regeneration.