Opposition is mounting to a huge new inner-city neighbourhood featuring 10 new apartment blocks and a five acre park. A developer wants to demolish a large of part of Regent Road Retail Park in Salford over the next few years to redevelop the area. It will mean outlets like Costa Coffee, TK Maxx, Home Bargains would all disappear. Henley Investment Management bought the shopping centre for £16million in 2020, and a public consultation took place at nearby Salford Lads Club on Friday where the plans were on display. A planning application is expected to be submitted to Salford city council before the end of the year. If planning permission is approved stores currently on the site would remain open until 2026 when the lease expires. Sainsbury’s supermarket, which occupies much of the site off Regent Road, is not affected. Coun Ben Grogran represents the Orsdsall ward in which the retail park sits. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “My two main concerns about the development are about the loss of jobs and about the loss of retail which a lot of the community relies on including the chemist, the vets, and affordable shops). “The retail park is listed as a Local Centre in Salford’s Local Plan because of this, and people think that it’s very unlikely that the retail provision that the developers are proposing will cater for the needs of Ordsall’s existing community. “This is one of the only retail parks I can think of that is fully occupied but the developers still purchased the land with the sole intention of knocking it down and building thousands of apartments – of which there will only be 250 affordable houses that actually benefit the area.” George Tapp, 74, is a former Salford city councillor and is well-known in the city as a volunteer at Ordsall Community Arts Centre and other local charities. He said: “We are concerned about the ‘gentrification’ of the area, where local assets like schools and smaller shopping precincts are being done away with.” Mr Tapp spoke of people moving out of London to invest in Salford, to the detriment of people currently living in the city, in his opinion. Resident Nicola Leonard also attended the consultation event. She said: “We do not want a situation where non-residents are investing in property here. We need affordable homes that people can live in.” Meanwhile, Henley development manager Hattie Chairlier-Poole said the long-term plan was to deliver half the project by 2026 and half in 2028. She said that included in the plan was five-and-a-half acres of parkland in the middle of the development. “Our aim is to get some feedback before we complete our design,” she added. The new tower blocks, which could be built on the northern part of the retail park, between the railway line, Oldfield Road and Ordsall Lane, will ‘provide an exciting new addition to the skyline’, the developer says. Henley says that while there will be some parking on site, ‘vehicle movements will be deliberately limited’ and it will instead ‘promote more sustainable modes of transport’. Every resident will be provided with a bicycle storage space. The developer says it plans to demolish the ‘outdated’ retail park as ‘both the local area and shopping habits… are very different’ to when it was built 30 years ago. They said: “Since then, consumer shopping patterns have changed significantly with the rise of online shopping. “Physical shops are changing and many retailers require less space. Our town centres are also changing, with more emphasis on dining, leisure and experiences. As a result, regeneration is needed to ensure that the site continues to meet the needs of the local community over the long term.”
