Chamberhall Business Park

Reporter: Ask Bury
Date online: 06/08/2007

Masterplans are now available for Chamberhall Business Park.  It comprises 39 acres of land, allocated in the UDP for office development, mostly in Council ownership and although a large part of it has been previously developed it was reclaimed as parkland in the 1970’s.  It is bounded by Peel Way, the River Irwell and Castlecroft Road.

This site was identified in the Unitary Development Plan for employment use and then in the  Employment Opportunities Study as an employment site which was of local strategic significance, and could provide 2,500 new office jobs close to the town centre.  The site has subsequently been included in the sub-regional action plan.

Planning permission has been granted for a new divisional headquarters for Greater Manchester Police to replace the existing premises on Irwell Street.

Planning permission has also been given for a new access road from Peel Way and a link road to Castlecroft Road.  This will make the present T junction on Peel Way into a cross roads.

The former Hesketh forgeworks and other industrial property which stood on Bury Ground near Bury Bridge has been demolished and cleared.  The new owners of this site intend to submit a planning application soon for around 100,000sq ft of offices.

Land to the northern part of the site has been the subject of a recent geo-environmental study and a planning application for this area will be submitted this summer.

The engineer proposes to build a link road to replace Carlyle Street starting in October and finishing in February next year.  A second contract will then complete the new access starting autumn 2008 and finishing late summer 2009 in time for the opening of the police HQ.  Work on the new police HQ should start next spring.

Features of this site will be an improved riverside footpath and wildlife corridor running the length of the site from Bury Bridge to the Woodhill railway viaduct.  The pond that was the boating and swimming pond for Chamber Hall two hundred years ago has dried up to become a reed bed.  This will be enlarged and partly dredged to become a haven for wildlife and it will act as a balancing reservoir to hold back surface water in times of heavy rain and help reduce risk of flooding flood from the Irwell. Finally a large green space will be retained facing Peel Mill.  Some of the existing trees on the site will be lost, but many will be kept and new ones will be planted.

Chamberhall will be a new modern business park set in a mature parkland.  Buildings will be expected to be designed to high environmental standards with low energy requirements.  There will be strong emphasis on public transport with good paths for walking or cycling to work and the Council is exploring the opportunity to run buses through the site and over the railway viaduct to Woodhill Road.

This development will take several years to complete but when it is finished it will be another piece in the jigsaw that will make the "Bury but Better’ plan a reality.