Mountpark maps out 1.6m sq ft in Knottingley
Wakefield’s planning committee will consider the logistics developer’s proposals for a 123-acre former coal stock yard at Ferrybridge C power station.
SMR Architects has designed the Mountpark Ferrybridge scheme, with Oxalis providing planning advice.
The professional team also includes Markides Associates, BCA and CDP.
Indicative plans suggest the space could be built out across six units, with this breakdown:
- Unit 1: 154,000 sq ft
- Unit 2: 100,000 sq ft
- Unit 3: 257,000 sq ft
- Unit 4: 178,000 sq ft
- Unit 5: 618,000 sq ft
- Unit 6: 333,000 sq ft
Mountpark, familiar to the area having delivered the 133,000 sq ft Mountpark Wakefield development at Europort now occupied by Amazon, wants to deliver the space on a site encircled by a private rail loop.
With the site allocated for industrial use, and only a handful of objections made, approval is recommended.
The application under consideration is a hybrid one, including:
- Full consent sought for infrastructure works including alterations to the railway, a new estate road, improvements to Kirkhaw Lane and the Old Great North Road, along with all associated landscaping, drainage and engineering works, along with demolition of existing buildings.
- Outline consent sought for the development of industrial & logistics space.
Other development in the area includes two large energy-from-waste facilities, which have been developed to the north of the cleared power station site.
In total, the application covers 1.64m sq ft across three zones. Some flexibility is sought, with up to 410,000 sq ft of B2 general industrial space accounted for within the parameters: however, the site could be wholly given over to logistics.
All documents relating to the project can be viewed on Wakefield Council’s planning portal at 23/00100/HYB.
The Mountpark site sits to the left in this historic shot from before the cooling towers were demolished. Credit: planning documents
