Pyramid Park

Bury Council

Hive was appointed to support Bury Council in securing grant funding to deliver the enabling infrastructure works at Pyramid Park, one of the Council’s major brownfield housing sites identified in the Bury Town Centre Masterplan.

Pyramid Park is ideally placed for residential development, being located next to Bury’s Transport Interchange and the wider town centre. However, the site presented delivery challenges that required addressing to present the market with a viable and deliverable development site. Hive identified the, One Public Estate administered, Brownfield Land Release Fund as the perfect programme through which to secure grant funding for the site’s delivery.

Following the securing of funding, Hive was instructed to submit a full planning application for the access and remediation enabling works to derisk the site to enable future residential development.

Delivery

Hive assembled a multi-disciplinary team of experts, with the skills necessary to create a business case with robust supporting evidence required to secure funding. Hive not only acted as lead bid author, but also project managed the team through the bid development process, as well undertaking the soft market testing and planning strategy. Hive tightly programme managed the bid process and site delivery profile to ensure the bid was submitted on time with all its constituent parts, and that the proposed works could be delivered within the permitted programme timescales.  A full planning application was subsequently prepared and submitted for the access and remediation works required to prepare the site for development. There was a high level of engagement with stakeholders, including TFGM and Active Travel pre and post-submission, to ensure that the proposals aligned with the delivery of future schemes related to the site. Hive worked closely with Bury Council Planning Officers and statutory consultees to resolve outstanding issues and to negotiate appropriate conditions and financial contributions.

Designing a detailed strategy and programme to unlock 48 residential sites with a capacity of 3,500+ new homes.
Production of a PID, implementation plan, site prioritisation matrix, area based promotion and marketing documents, and individual proformas for each site including an analysis of the interventions required
A landowner engagement strategy and extensive engagement with funding bodies (including Homes England) aimed at specifically addressing viability challenges.
Drafting an investment prospectus and launch event to directly market the sites to developers.

Outcome

Through Hive’s role in this commission, the client could be assured that the future residential scheme was in accordance with the requirements of the market and that there was a route map to securing planning permission. Hive assembled a high-quality and deliverable masterplan, a set of costed enabling works with supporting technical studies, a viability appraisal that showed the site was deliverable and an economic appraisal demonstrating the proposal aligned with programme requirements. Ultimately, Bury Council was able to secure £1.73 million of Brownfield Land Regeneration Funding specifically to deliver remediation and infrastructure works. This funding is essential to overcome the physical challenges of the site, including contamination and access constraints, which have previously hindered attempts to develop the site. Planning permission was granted for the full planning application for land remediation, the construction of a vehicular access road, and a footway from Market Street, along with associated infrastructure and structural works. The approval of this application will unlock the potential for approximately 148 residential units, contributing to the delivery of aspirations for the site in the Bury Town Centre Masterplan, and supporting the vitality and viability of the town centre.

More Projects

Seedfield Centre, Bury

Instructed by Hive Homes to provide planning consultancy advice in respect of a residential scheme proposed on a previously developed site in the Green Belt. We initially led the pre-application discussions with Bury Council, who were also the landowner.

Yew Tree Farm, Burscough

Acting for Redrow, Hive were instructed to lead the submission of a reserved matters application for 169 homes. This was the third phase of residential development at Yew Tree Farm and so it was important to ensure that consistency was achieved and we did this by working extremely closely with the design and technical teams at Redrow.

Former Riverside High School, Bury

The former Riverside High School site is located to the west of Radcliffe town centre and has been vacant since 2015. The site, which was cleared in 2021, provided an opportunity to delivery for much needed housing development in Bury.

2020 Winner of the national Planning Awards Editors Choice Award for best overall project and the Increased Housing Delivery category for Preston City Living Strategy

2020 Winner of the Spatial Planning and Plan-Making award in the RTPI North West Regional Awards for Planning Excellence for the Preston City Living Strategy

Who We Work For

Projects

Testimonials