Garden village near Carlisle aims to deliver 10,000 new homes

Work has started on the development of a proposed 10,000 home garden village to the south of Carlisle, it has been revealed.

On Tuesday (June 23), a series of hearings started at the Civic Centre in the city which will explore the emerging St Cuthbert’s Garden Village Local Plan to check its soundness.

Neil Cole, Cumberland Council’s head of planning policy, told Benjamin Clarke, the inspector in charge of the hearings, that the council is ‘actively working with Homes England’ on the delivery of the first 3,000 homes but it was still in the very early stages.

He said the development was ‘one of the most ambitious proposals in the north of England’ which would help with the area’s long term housing needs as well as boosting economic growth.

Mr Cole said there had been engagement on the development – which is expected to take 30 years to deliver – since 2017.

Earlier this month the Carlisle Southern Link Road, which was considered vital to the project, was fully opened and last month the first planning application for part of the garden village was approved.

Mr Cole added: “We believe this local plan is sound.”

He said that the document was submitted to the secretary of state in the autumn and it is expected to go live next year.

In opening the session, Mr Clarke said that the purpose of the hearings was to check whether the plan was sound and, since it was submitted, the council had suggested a number of modifications.

The hearings are set to last for up to two and a half weeks and the local plan has been through a lengthy process of drafting since 2018.

It has also been through the committee process by way of executive and scrutiny where members of those committees have had opportunity to get involved and help shape the document.

As well as the 10,000 homes, the proposed planned development would also include four primary schools and a secondary school as well as commercial, retail and employment space and extensive green spaces.

There are usually six stages for a Local Plan Examination including ​initial assessment, written statements, hearings, changes to the plan, final report and adoption.

The garden village local plan website states: “Generally most examinations take around 12 to 18 months from submission of the plan to receiving the inspector’s final report, but this can vary depending on the number and significance of the main issues raised and the modifications needed to address them.”

St Cuthbert’s Garden Village is proposed to be the size of Penrith and include 10,000 new homes. The idea of a garden village was originally proposed in 2015 by the former Carlisle City Council.