London Road and Inkerman Road renovations

Many of you will be familiar with Spen Hill Development’s renovation plans for London Road.

The good news is that these have now been approved and work, which is expected to take nine months, is starting on 24^th October.

The houses, flats and shops between 71 and 93 London Road will be completely overhauled and number 83 – 85 will become a new restaurant. On Inkerman Road, between 25-29, the houses will completely refurbished and an additional two infill properties will be built to match the rest of the terrace as well as a further property to the side of no. 29

To minimise disturbance to local residents construction traffic will use the main Evershed House entrance off Alma Road. Spen Hill will also place some discreet “No Construction Traffic” signs to the entrances of Bedford Rd and Alexandra Road to ensure contractors and delivery companies abide by this.

Public consultation feedback and design changes

Spen Hill has listened hard to residents following the public consultation. Overall, the scheme has been very well received, with residents especially positive about the redevelopment of the site, the overall design and the proposal for the new central square.

However, based on what people have said, Spen Hill has expanded the parking provision beneath the central square and has also completely redesigned the new building that is proposed at the bottom of Inkerman Road so it’s much smaller and blends in better with the existing street.

The architects and development team are now in the final stages of the pre-application process and provided there are no unexpected delays, Spen Hill hopes to submit a formal application towards the middle of November.

"The London Road Project" is the name we have given the development that lies to the North of London Road and has boundaries of Inkerman Road/Lattimore Road to the West, Alma Road to the East and Bedford Road to the North.

The core of the site comprises the industrial buildings formally used by the Evershed printing company. The property holdings of Evershed were held under the company name of Verulam Properties Ltd (VPL). When Tesco purchased the site it was VPL that they purchased rather than the individual properties.

In addition to the core central site VPL also own a number of properties closeby.

These include:-

• The terrace of property from 71 - 93 London Road
• The former Odeon Car Park, London Road
• Norman House, London Road
• 3 - 27 Alma Road
• 19-29 Inkerman Road (Odd numbers only)
• 44-56 Inkerman Road (Even numbers only)

The former Peugeot/Alfa Romeo dealership behind the Esso Garage is also included in the project but is under slightly different ownership. The Esso garage and properties to the East of the garage (away from the City Centre) are not included in the project.

Tesco has announced that they no longer wish to pursue their ambitions to build a store on the site. The project has been passed to Spen Hill Developments which is the property developer "arm" of Tesco.

Spen Hill are exploring the options for the site, which will undoubtedly result in the sale of some fringe properties, as well as development of the central area.

The information given here at the moment is rather sparse but it is our intention to post news of the project on to this website, as well as details of both residential and commercial properties when they become available to purchase or to rent. Please revisit regularly to keep up to date.