PLANS for hundreds of apartments on a former hardware store site have been submitted.

Two blocks of between four and nine storeys in height with a total of 333 one and two-bedroom apartments could be build on the former B&Q Site on Great Stone Road in Stretford, if Trafford Council’s planning committee gives the green light.

The currently vacant site sits next to Lancashire Cricket Club, was also once home to a night club.

Earlier this year, the council’s executive confirmed it was happy to use compulsory-purchase powers ‘in principal’ to secure the land from its current owners, property development firm Accrue Capital.

The council’s plan had been to develop the site as part of its masterplan for Stretford and build a high-quality leisure centre and car park on the site with close links to Lancashire Cricket Club.

But now Accrue have submitted a new planning application for the site.

Alongside the hundreds of flats, the firm is seeking permission to reserve space on site for a cafe, a possible drop-in health clinic, a convenience store and a gym.

Accrue had previously submitted plans for 433 homes on the site in Great Stone Road last year, but those plans were refused permission by the council in March 2019 due to concerns about the height and density of the development.

Their lawyers wrote to the council early this year to make it clear they would be ‘robustly defending’ any attempt to compulsory purchase the land – but these attempts were not successful.

The firm said then it planned to submit a revised planning application for the site, and this new application for 333 apartments is it.

The application states at least 10 per cent of the housing provided on site will be affordable – with 17 one-bedroom apartments and 17 two-bedroom apartments reserved in the plans – but the possibility of increasing to 40 per cent affordable housing will be looked into.

Car parking space would be provided in the basement of the blocks.

But the plans have been recommended for refusal by council officers, due to the potential harm the development could have on the Longford Park Conservation Area nearby, among other worries.

Other reasons for the recommended refusal include the fact that the building would supposedly 'dominate’ over the nearby cricket cub, have ‘poor design’, insufficient affordable housing included and concerns over size, scale and mass of the development remain.