Former power station transformation plan recevies final sign-off

The transformation of an old Tameside power station into homes will go ahead after receiving the final sign-off.

Hartshead Power Station and Millbrook Sidings in Stalybridge have been vacant for more than 35 years. The site will become home to a huge park and 162 new houses.

The £12.5m masterplan, tabled by Casey Group Limited, was approved by the planning panel last year, but now the final paperwork has been approved by council bosses.

Since the power station site shut in the 1980s numerous applications promising garden centres and leisure facilities haven’t ever come to fruition. But now Casey Group’s masterplan, comprising four development ‘zones’, is now one step closer to becoming a reality.

Zone one is focused on ponds and surroundings at the Printworks, which would be protected as an ‘ecology area’. Zone two, where a community hub was planned, has been redesigned to become an ‘ecology enhancement area’ on the former power station site to the north of Spring Bank Lane.

Zone three is woodland along the route of a former railway line, while zone four is the former railway sidings off Crowswood Drive – where the 162 homes are planned.

The site itself sits within the greenbelt and currently has remnants of the former industrial uses including exposed culverts and drains, disused buildings and structures, piles of rubble and concrete slabs and isolated contamination.

The new housing estate would be split between 31 two-bed houses, 75 three bed and 55 four or more bedroom homes. These would include a range of affordable and open market properties accessed off Crowswood Drive, according to the planning documents.

CGI of what the new 162-home development on the old Hartshead Power Station in Stalybridge could look like.

When the applicants originally tabled the plans in 2021, they wanted to create a new park across 62 acres of land in Millbrook, named the ‘Tame Valley Park’ which would serve the 35,000 residents of Stalybridge and Mossley. In the years since the application was submitted hundreds of objection letters were sent to Tameside council – leading to changes in the application.

Due to concerns over loss of green space, the plan for a community hub has been scrapped and replaced with an ecological area with a focus on nature conservation and biodiversity net gain.

Where the community hub, visitor car park and play area were once destined to go will now see new water bodies, a woodland and a flower meadow. The proposed play area that was supposed to be incorporated into the community hub has been moved and would now connect to the existing and planned new homes.

Original plans such as the retention and improvement of over 16ha of woodland and vegetation have been retained by the developers in order to provide ‘habitat creation and key green and blue infrastructure’. 

Creation of new cycle and pedestrian routes where the dismantled railway track used to be would form part of the Bee Network cycle route.

Proposed cycle and pedestrian route planned for overhaul of old Hartshead Power Station site in Stalybridge.