AN ABANDONED power station that has remained dormant for decades is being transformed into a huge park.
It involves a £12.5 million masterplan for over 16 hectares of land in the area.
The old Hartshead Power Station and Millbrook Sidings site in Stalybridge, Tameside will be turned into a huge park with 162 new homes.
Proposals for transformation of the former goods shed and power station received their final sign off from council bosses.
It was tabled by Casey Group Limited and approved by the planning panel last year.
The power station has received several applications to develop leisure facilities and garden centres since it shut in the 1980s – but none ever pulled through.
Now masterplans for the site include four development ‘zones’ focused on different features for the area.
Zone one hopes to be a protected “ecology area” and include ponds that will be around the Printworks.
Zone two has been allocated to the former power station site which will be redesigned to become an “ecology enhancement area” to the north of Spring Bank Lane.
Zone three is set for woodland along the former railway line route.
And Zone four, as the former railway sidings off Crowswood Drive, will be turned into the development of 162 homes.
The current site has remnants of its former industrial background, including exposed culverts and drains, abandoned buildings and structures, piles of rubble and concrete slabs with isolated contamination.
Plans for its new housing estate include a split of 31 two-bedroom , 75-three bed, and 55-four or more bed homes.
A range of affordable and open market properties are set to be available.
They will be accessible off Crowswood Drive, according to planning documents.
It follows original plans from 2021 that hopes to create a new 62-acre park across Millbrook – to be called “Tame Valley Park”.
The park would be a new space for the 35,000 residents of Stalybridge and Mossley.
However, the submitted application received hundreds of letters of objection sent to Tameside council.
Concerns over loss of green space were raised with plans for the community hub, and changes have been made by the council.
Instead, an ecological area for nature conservation that can provide a net gain in biodiversity will be the focus.
The community hub, visitor car park and play area is therefore being replaced with new water bodies, a woodland and a flower meadow.
Plans for a new play area that was going to be incorporated into the existing community hub has been moved.
It will now connect with the existing and new planned homes.
Original intentions to retain and improve over 16 hectares of woodland and vegetation in the area have been retained.
This is aligned with hopes to enable “habitat creation and key green and blue infrastructure” from the developers.
