Gasholder - Bury St Edmunds

Weston Homes has gained planning consent from West Suffolk Council for a new £40m (GDV) residential-led scheme on the former Gasholder site on Tayfen Road, in Bury St Edmunds, which will create 171 new homes, comprising one and two-bedroom apartments, and a commercial unit providing 404 sq.metres of flexible workspace.

Located on a 1.15 hectare (2.84 acre) brownfield site, on which a 1950s Gasholder once stood, the new development will provide 68 one-bedroom and 103 two-bedroom apartments, including 31 affordable housing units, comprising 16 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom apartments. The former Gasholder site is within close proximity of Bury St Edmunds train station and existing green infrastructure at Tayfields Parkland and Tayfen Meadow.

Featuring low-rise architecture and subtly coloured brickwork that will honour the historic market town’s period architectural and industrial heritage, the scheme will provide six new apartment buildings, four to five storeys in height.

Weston Homes has carefully considered the landscaping of the scheme which will incorporate informal play elements, with an emphasis on new pedestrian and cycle routes, plus extensive provision for bicycle storage.

As well as having access to landscaped public spaces, each apartment will benefit from external private amenity space, in the form of a recessed or projecting balcony, or a ground level garden patio. New vehicular access to the site will be created from Tayfen Road, with a total of 136 car parking spaces, including bays for disabled access needs.

The disused Gasholder site – the 1950s-built industrial structure was decommissioned in 2015 and has since been dismantled – sits to the northwest of Tayfen Road, in easy walking distance of Bury St Edmunds’ thriving town centre, which is characterised by attractive conservation areas and an array of shopping, schools and colleges, eateries, GP surgeries and community facilities on hand.