DISUSED factory buildings in Pershore could be knocked down to make way for housing.

Plans to build 78 new homes on the old Atlas Works site off Station Road have been put forward.

Developer SevenHomes acquired the manufacturing site last year and has now submitted an application for outline planning permission to Wychavon District Council.

If approved, the plan is for a mix of semi-detached and terraced houses to be built on the site.

HOUSES: The former manufacturing site could get a new lease of lifeHOUSES: The former manufacturing site could get a new lease of life (Image: SevenHomes)

SevenHomes says the entrance to the estate would be via an existing access road off Walcot Lane.

“This helps to re-enforce Walcot Lane as a better-defined residential street,” the developer says in planning documents.

“A well-defined gateway into the site can be achieved through facing key plots onto the entrance junction. Key buildings on corners will address surveillance issues by offering dual aspect design.

“The development will also propose that any areas of public open space within the site will be overlooked by plots facing onto it, thus ensuring more security through good design principles.”

SevenHomes says the scheme would rejuvenate a brownfield site that is two minutes’ walk from Pershore Railway Station, giving it a “new fresh purpose that’s in harmony with its surrounding context.”

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The site was last occupied by Allen Gears, a company that made gearboxes for industrial and marine operations.

The firm vacated the site, which is made up of 17 buildings of varying ages, in 2017. One office building remained in use until 2021 but since then the site has been completely empty.

SevenHomes says the buildings on site “are in poor condition due to their age and previous use.”

The developer says it has explored the option of redeveloping the site for “alternative employment use” but because of the costs involved, this “would not make a commercial return”.

“There is no realistic prospect of the site returning to an employment use,” it says. “As a consequence an alternative use is required for the sustainable brownfield site.

“SevenHomes has, therefore, embarked on the preparation of this residential planning application.”