Go-ahead expected for £100m town on site of former colliery

Planning permission for the 630-acre Waverley development was granted in April this year but amendments by Harworth Estates, the property arm of UK Coal, have led to a delay of several months.

The hold-up means building work will commence from the south-western corner of the site adjacent to the Highfield Commercial site rather than the northern end next to The Poplars Industrial Estate. The density of housing in the 260-property first phase has also been slightly reduced.

Building will now proceed in a north-easterly direction.

Phases two and three will be located adjacent to Highfield Lane on the northern fringe of the site and the final phase will be next to the Sheffield-Lincoln railway line on the western edge.

A spokeswoman for UK Coal confirmed the changes to the building and said they expected planning permission to be granted at a Rotherham Borough Council planning board meeting on Thursday.

Council planning officials said the changes were “relatively minor material amendments” and would not change the original planning decision, meaning work on the new town could start early next year.

The town will have 3,890 houses – including 973 affordable homes, two primary schools, offices, a supermarket, transport interchange, a health centre, community centre, parks, bars, restaurants and cafés when fully built.

A waterfront promenade with shops, restaurants and an artificial beach is planned.

A separate application by UK Coal and Helical Governetz to build an adjoining 64,500 square-metre government office campus has also been approved.

A 100-acre advanced manufacturing park is already located near the site.

The developers claim the Waverley development will transform the disused and reclaimed industrial brownfield site into a “thriving new community”.

“The masterplan for the town uses the latest sustainable design principles to propose an entirely self-supporting, low carbon community,” they say.

“It incorporates the development’s existing features and development limitations into a design that will transform this sterile brownfield site into an attractive, well-integrated and vibrant town for the future.”

The town – which will be constructed in several phases over the forthcoming 20 years – will eventually be home to about 9,000 people and is expected to create 7,000 jobs.

The entire community will appear on the site of Orgreave Colliery, which was the scene of some of the bitterest clashes during the miners’ strike in 1984.

Official reports say 93 arrests were made during the Battle of Orgreave on June 18, with 51 pickes and 72 policemen injured.

Plans for a 1.2 mile single-carriageway link road running through the new town have proved controversial.

The road, designed to alleviate congestion on the B6200 Retford/Handsworth Road, and provide a link for the new town to the M1 and the A630 Sheffield Parkway, was blocked by residents in nearby Woodhouse Mill, who said it would run over existing playing fields.

Revised plans to run the route to the east of the playing fields were put to the public in a consultation in August.

Under the plans, a transport interchange would be built early in the development and sited within a five-minute walk of most households in Waverley.

It would provide a park-and-ride scheme for residents, with bus services to Sheffield and Rotherham.

The 4,000 houses will be a mix of apartments, townhouses, terraced and detached properties, with a quarter designated as affordable homes.