Grounds for optimism over homes plan

The stadium that once housed a club record 55,019 fans when Hull City hosted Manchester United is now an empty wasteland, having stood vacant for nearly a decade.

Last month its towering floodlights finally bit the dust.

Developers are looking to build an “imaginative and contemporary development” consisting of a mix of 235 flats and two and three-storey houses. Doncaster-based Strata Homes, which is in negotiations to buy the land, say if granted they are looking to be on site in January, with the first homes ready in August.

Planning officers at Hull Council are backing the development which they say should provide a “high-quality environment for prospective applicants.”

Newington ward councillor Rick Welton said: “These plans are very welcome. They have been a long time coming and it will be great to see that iconic site once in beneficial use and there is a strong demand for good quality housing in west Hull.

“The residents have had to put up with a lot over the years - we are constantly being asked what’s going to happen with the site – and the residents will be very anxious to see it developed to get rid of this horrible eyesore.”

Former planning chairman Coun John Fareham said: “Any regeneration in Hull is welcome it shows how long these matters take as I can recall a pre-planning application on planning two or three years ago.

“It is one of those sites you drive past, it is a significant road junction and therefore it is important.”

Lancashire-based developer Paloma Land Ltd gained outline planning permission in 2005 to build hundreds of homes on the 4.45 hectare site.

But the development stalled and the ground became a target for looters and arsonists.

In 2008 they submitted a more detailed “reserved matters” application but then asked for it to be put on hold.

Access into the new estate will be from North Road and Boothferry Road, despite concerns from neighbours on North Road who say they will suffer from car headlights shining into their front windows.

Police asked for fencing and planting of “deterrent bushes” behind homes backing onto a railway embankment which is a “known escape route for criminals”.

Otherwise there were no major objections.

The committee is due to visit the site next Wednesday before making their decision.

The land was part of Hull Golf Club course until 1924. During the Second World War it was taken over by the Home Guard, who used it for a time to service and repair tanks.

City played their first match at Boothferry Park in August 1946, and their last in December 2002.