Homes set to be built on former Gloucester cattle market site

An aerial view of the former cattle market site, with the area where the new houses would be built outlined in red

Hundreds of new homes are set to be built on the site of a former city cattle market.

Rooftop Housing Group has signed a deal with Gloucester City Council to transform derelict land at St Oswald's Park into 300 homes.

The scheme has been backed by £2.2m from the Government's Brownfield Land Release Fund.

A planning application is due to be submitted in early 2024, with a view to construction starting in March 2025.

The livestock market was in operation from 1955 until 2001, when it closed after the impact of a foot and mouth disease outbreak

If the plans are approved, the £30m development would be built over three years.

A third of the houses will be for private sale, a third set aside for social rent, and the remainder sold under shared ownership

David Hannon, Rooftop executive director, said there will be a mixture of apartments and houses.

"We will aim to achieve zero carbon if at all possible," said Mr Hannon.

"The principle of building new homes on this site is agreed.

"It's now into the fine detail of what is going to be built on this site and does it meet local needs and does it meet planning policy," he added.

This design illustrates the proposed layout of the development

Richard Cook, leader of Gloucester City Council, said new homes were needed, with almost 5,000 people on the housing waiting list.

"The problem with Gloucester is that it's a small city with tight urban boundaries, which means that there aren't very many places that we can build," said Mr Cook.

"We need to be able to provide that housing to accommodate a large housing waiting list.

"The social value that might be derived from this is expected to be in the region of millions of pounds. When we develop these large projects, we try and extract as much social value as we can do," he added.

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