Councillors give green light for homes at Tigers’ former ground

Doncaster-based developer Strata Homes hopes to start work on the Boothferry Park site by the late autumn after the company’s plans were approved by members of Hull Council’s planning committee.

The stadium has stood vacant for nearly a decade after the Tigers moved to the KC Stadium.

Outline planning permission was granted to Lancashire-based developer Paloma Land Ltd in 2005 but the development stalled and the ground became a target for looters and arsonists.

As well as building a mix of 235 flats and two and three-storey houses, some form public of art will also be installed to commemorate the site’s long history.

Technical director Mark Davis said: “The council have recognised that it is an important site and they have been very good at working with us. Other councils would have sent us on our way long ago but they recognised the difficulties Paloma was having. I think we will have to be sympathetic to the area and what’s gone previously, certainly give a reflection of what has gone.”

At yesterday’s meeting councillors also agreed £30m plans for a superstore with a petrol station at the junction of Holderness Road with Mount Pleasant, despite fears over “horrendous” traffic problems in the area.

Barnsley-based Dransfield Properties, which is in a joint venture with developer ispace, and has been involved in a number of schemes in the city, including the Asda on Hessle Road and The Mount retail park opposite, says it will create as many as 400 jobs.

All the businesses fronting Holderness Road – due to be replaced by eight new units – have been relocated, bar two.

Managing director Mark Dransfield said it was “the first major step forward” – as the development still needs approval from the Secretary of State and there will have to be compulsory purchase orders made of outstanding properties. He said: “We have worked on the scheme with everybody’s involvement since 2002.

“We wouldn’t be investing £30m in this site if we didn’t think it would work.”

The Highways Agency has lifted its objection and the authorities believe adding extra lanes and reconfiguring signals will allow traffic to flow. The superstore will be accessed and exited from Mount Pleasant.

However one local business believes it will cause traffic chaos and cost it jobs.

K & R Motors, which is based on Burleigh Street 50ft from the proposed superstore, said cars would have to cross the proposed car park to get to its garage, as Burleigh Street was going to be blocked off to cars.

Joint owner Kevin Taylor said: “We’ve been in business 20 years and here for 12 years and I think it is going to damage us.

“I can’t believe they are going to build this. There’s a bottleneck on Mount Pleasant and Holderness Road and it’s a dangerous junction as it is. I can see it leading to traffic chaos.”

The owners of the Mount retail park, the Universities Superannuation Scheme, also objected, saying there were serious concerns about the scale of the “speculative” development. It is estimated it will have a convenience goods turnover of £37.44m and a total turnover of £54.97m – greater, according to opponents, than that of the district shopping centre as a whole.

However councillors were keen on the prospect of hundreds of jobs and getting rid of the boarded up shops which front onto Holderness Road and. Chairman Craig Woolmer said he was always “very sceptical” when people turned up at meetings to argue against supermarkets saying they were bad for other businesses.

He said it was for the market to decide, adding: “Clearly if people think there’s a market for this sort of development it is up to them.”

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