Housing planned for former Stafford General Electric factory site
New homes will be built on a former General Electric plant in Stafford under plans - after its developer recently secured permission for a huge new estate nearby.
St Modwen wants to redevelop the General Electric/Alstom site, off Lichfield Road, and a consultation into the scheme is under way.
The developer said the industrial use of the Lichfield Road site has become “redundant”.
It is now considering demolishing existing buildings on the 31-acre site to make way for “high quality new homes”.
St Modwen has yet to confirm how many homes will be built but it is thought to be up to 400.
A planning application is due to be submitted to Stafford Borough Council in early 2020.
The plans come just months after St Modwen secured permission for up to 430 homes on the old Areva site off nearby Fairway.
Visitors flocked to a consultation event at Brocton FC’s Silkmore Lane ground on November 28 to find out more about the Lichfield Road scheme.
And several residents have voiced concerns about how the town’s existing roads, health services and other infrastructure would cope with the extra homes.
There have also been questions raised about the provision of affordable homes on the site.
Lorraine Conkey said: “The Victorian sewerage system can’t cope with the housing around Queensville and St Leonard’s Avenue and you are talking about putting 400 homes on here.
"Until the hospital gets 24 hour A&E back there is no way this town is going to cope with any more housing. When the M6 is down nobody can get in.”
Another resident said: “I just don’t know how Lichfield Road is going to cope with all this extra traffic.
"People are complaining now about the amount of time it takes.
“I can’t see what can be done to improve the situation.”
The main vehicle access is proposed to be off Ranshaw Drive, with just pedestrian and cycle entry via Lichfield Road
An information board displayed at the consultation event said: “Residential development is considered to be the most viable, suitable and sustainable option for the site.
“The site presents an excellent opportunity to help satisfy Stafford’s housing needs, provide a greater choice of homes in the local area and increase access to new, modern homes for the community.
“The site has evolved over time to be very specific to the former GE operations.
"It has been in industrial use for over 100 years; many buildings are old. outdated and redundant.
"It would not be possible to find a long term, viable, sustainable use for the buildings and they cannot be retained.
“We have looked into redeveloping all of the site for employment use, demolishing the existing buildings and creating new industrial units.
"However access would be needed via Lichfield Road to secure modern day business employers and this is not feasible.
"There is also insufficient market demand to sustain this amount of new employment development in this location.”
Anyone who would like to have their say on the General Electric proposals should email comment@planningprospects.co.uk by Saturday.
General Electric closed its plant in Lichfield Road in March.
