Plans are on the way for luxury shopping village in Chorley

An application for a luxury shopping village in Chorley has been postponed by a week.
Photo Ian Robinson Chorley Aerial Botany Bay in ChorleyPhoto Ian Robinson Chorley Aerial Botany Bay in Chorley
Photo Ian Robinson Chorley Aerial Botany Bay in Chorley

Plans for a ‘Bicester Village of the North’ on land at Botany Bay will now be submitted to Chorley Council by Friday, July 7.

Landowner FI Real Estate Management is hoping to bring housing, high-end retail and an employment area to the site just off junction eight of the M61 motorway. Planners say the build will bring hundreds of new jobs and a destination shopping village to town, which people will travel to from all over the UK.

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The luxury shopping village could offer up brands such as Armani, Prada and Vivienne Westwood. Initial plans also suggest that part of the residential site, owned by Drinkwater and Williamson, will hold up to 100 homes with another residential plot owned by Landowners FI Real Estate Management bringing up to 188 homes. Meanwhile the 6.8-hectare parcel of land in Gale Moss will be used as an employment area, namely for industry, storage and distribution companies.

However not everyone is in favour of the chance for high-end retail therapy, preferring cheaper brands like Primark. Vanessa Curwood from Adlington said: “I don’t get excited at the prospect of being able in the future to nip out for a Prada handbag, especially when I’m going round and round Chorley Hospital car park looking for an available place.

“What I would like is a Park and Ride which goes from the land adjacent to Botany Bay, to Chorley Hospital, and then into Chorley town centre, which is going to be harder to park in when the new shops are built on the Flat Iron.

“The return journey would also take people without cars to be able to visit Botany Bay, and maybe something which sells more affordable clothes like a Primark maybe?”