In February 2006 Ashfield Land secured planning permission for one of the largest mixed-use development sites within South Lanarkshire. This case study sets out how we came to own the site and the methodology behind the success story.

Newton Farm (450 acres) was introduced to us by an agent in Sussex and until that time our most northerly development was in Birmingham. We needed to learn about the differences in planning law and the legal system very quickly and get to know an area completely new to us.

We always look for strong communication links and nearby railway stations when assessing potential sites and Newton Farm was extremely well connected with the adjacent Newton station providing services to Glasgow and Edinburgh. The M74, M8 and M73 motorways are all very accessible and Glasgow city centre lies only 6 miles to the west.

The site was being sold by a private company who wanted a sale concluded quickly and since the site was in the greenbelt planning was many years away. After completing our due diligence we bought the farm for a significant sum, certainly much more than the farm was worth as grazing land. A purchase at this level meant we owned the site outright without any obligation to pay uplift in the event that planning was achieved.

Historically the site had been a major colliery serving the adjacent Hallside Steelworks, which produced over half the steel for the Forth Rail Bridge. Although mining activities on the farm ceased in the 1960’s the relicts of that industry had left a poor environment.

There were four main issues to be addressed when considering this purchase. Firstly, planning as the farm was in the green belt, secondly the historic use needed to be considered in terms of contamination and stability of the ground, and thirdly the farm needed additional land to secure a development access.

In order to secure the site we had to move quickly and didn’t have time to pursue these issues to conclusion at that time. It was during our ownership that we finally resolved the various matters.

The following section demonstrated how we dealt with the issues mentioned in the paragraph above.

Planning
Whilst the farm was in the greenbelt the historic mining activities had left large areas in a very poor agricultural condition and the three bings were visually intrusive. In our opinion the farm was brown-field, albeit in the greenbelt. The other factor was the finalised Structure Plan and the emerging local plan. The Structure plan allocation of housing for South Lanarkshire was considerable, and would require some green belt land to be taken out for development. There were a number of competing green belt proposals but none with such good public transport provision. The emerging local plan had identified Newton farm for a release, along with other competing sites. We were confident that the environmental improvements we could offer along with the benefits of Newton Station were sufficient to put Newton Farm ahead. It was at this point in the process that we bought the farm.

Following on from our purchase and with our appointed planning consultants we worked with the council and demonstrated the benefits of the site compared with other competing proposals. We attended the Local Plan enquiry with our planners and legal team and secured an allocation for a notional development of 500 units. A strong reason for the release was the environmental improvements we would implement.

Historic use, Contamination and ground stability
We commissioned extensive reports into the condition of the ground which included both chemical testing and investigating the mineral stability of the ground. In addition we also sunk boreholes into the bings to identify the contamination levels, and again stability of the material. We also had to test the bings for combustibility as a reasonable amount of coal was likely to remain amongst the overburden.

The results were very positive when considering the historical use of the land. The vast majority of the farm land was clear of contaminants and the mining’s were at a substantial depth and wouldn’t affect development. The bings were quite heavily contaminated in part but the volumes involved were small.

We did discover some rare plants and grayling butterflies on one of the bings. As part of the development we will be creating a new habitat for these species.

Access
At the time of our purchase we didn’t own or control a suitable access for the proposed development. We had identified land that would suit but that was under a long term option to another developer. That land was also green belt and we took the view that they would only achieve development if the environmental improvements to the bings were instigated and the bings were on our land not the option land. The planners also held this view and after some 18 months the other developer realised that there was no option other than to enter into a JV with us or sell. In the end we bought the land.

Having secured the access land we submitted a landscape driven master-plan planning application for just over 700 units with associated sports facilities, a site for a school and a community building. Bearing in mind the size of the proposal the planning application ran smoothly and within 12 months we secured a planning approval.

The consented site was sold to a major house builder.

We acquired 450 acres, took part of the site out of the green belt, secured an access, obtained a planning permission for 700 units and sold off the site all within 4 years. This case study demonstrates Ashfield Land’s expertise in bringing forward development land and their ability to buy large sites without planning permission.

The new local plan is now moving forward and the whole process of promotion will start again on the undeveloped 330 acres.