Developer and contractor Challenger Building Services has secured permission for a £5m Liverpool city region scheme that will provide 35 homes for over 65s. Tony McDonough reports

Council planners have given the go ahead for a £5m development of 35 affordable homes aimed at people aged 65 and older.

Developer and contractor Challenger Building Services has secured permission from Halton Council for the scheme in Runcorn. The approval replaces an earlier consent in November 2020 for a three storey apartment development with 32 or 33 apartments.

The revised scheme also provides 18 car parking spaces at the rear of the building, including three disabled and two electric vehicle spaces, together with a landscaped residents’ garden and external cycle storage unit.

Designed by Liverpool architects Falconer Chester Hall, the project will provide a mix of one- and two-bed affordable apartments targeting the over-65s. Challenger managing director Richard Hutchinson said: “The local authority has recognised the scheme’s value in regenerating a prominent brownfield site.

“We will deliver more social value with this larger scheme and I am delighted with the approval.  It’s a thoughtful and welcoming scheme, designed using the Building For Life 12 key and HAPPI principles. We are really pleased with the way in which it enhances the existing streetscape.”

Other consultants on the scheme include SATPLAN (planning), Mode (transport planning), DEP Landscape Architecture (landscape design), Surety Fire Solutions (fire engineers) and Philip Wright Associates (structural engineers).

Mike Gore, director at Falconer Chester Hall, added: “The development is on a prominent corner plot and its design has been influenced by existing contextual features.

“We have incorporated soldier courses above the windows and balconies that offer a rhythm to the elevation, whilst a carefully considered materials palette ensures the building will complement its surroundings.”