Hundreds more apartments to be built in Castleford

Strata Homes is to build 250 three-and four-bedroom apartments in Castleford.The 19.7-acre plot on Flass Lane close, to junction 32 of the M62, was sold by Harworth Group, a regenerator of land and property for development and investment.With Keepmoat in the process of building out the site’s first phase of 157 homes, the deal leaves Harworth with the site’s remaining phase of approximately 10 acres, which it intends to bring to the market over the next 18 months for further residential development. The overall development has an outline planning consent in place for 560 new homes.The sale has been made possible through the start of construction of the planned 1.2km Glasshoughton Southern Link Road, providing a new access to the site.The £6 million road will extend from Whistler Drive and link with Flass Lane and the M62. It will provide an alternative route around the Glasshoughton leisure and retail area to reduce local congestion.Funded through the West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund, it will also include a segregated cycle route.It will also make local bus journeys more reliable, encouraging more active travel and public transport use.The transport fund is supported through the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal – a £1 billion package of Government investment delivered in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to accelerate growth and create jobs across Leeds City Region.Harworth donated some of its land at its Flass Lane development to help create the engineered corridor for the Link Road. It has previous experience of doing this at its Prince of Wales major development in Pontefract, where the donation of land to support the construction of the Pontefract Northern Relief Road was a key planning condition in granting consent for 917 new homes in 2013.Coun Peter Box, Wakefield Council leader and chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Investment Committee, said: “This new link road will underpin ongoing economic growth in Glasshoughton and a resurgent Castleford as well as making possible the construction of new, much-needed housing.”