New Broughton: The Making Of A Community

I WENT for another wander around New Broughton last week.

And prices on re-sales seem to be holding up well. Hunters currently have a nice two bed in The Vibe which is on the market for £97,000 including secure parking.

Stopped for a sandwich and a coffee in the Matchsticks Bistro, picked up a paper from the mini supermarket and checked out the new park.

It’s a bustling little area. Opening up Broughton Lane has made a big difference and the fact you can park for free right outside the shops and pop in and get milk or a prescription from the chemist or a bunch of flowers means it’s busy.

But it’s the scale of redevelopment at New Broughton that makes the difference

New Broughton

This is not piecemeal, random regeneration, with an odd new row of housing here and there but large scale transformation of an area that was much in need of transforming.

Since work started on site in December 2006 Countryside Properties has delivered 790 new homes, mainly family sized housing with apartments concentrated in one block, The Vibe, which sits above the retail space and has a private resident’s only podium garden.

They should have been further along by now towards the end aim of 3,500 new homes but the property world collapse of 2008 affected New Broughton too although it was the first to get building again a year later.

And for me when I go back what’s most impressive is that the properties that were built first, on the right of Broughton Lane, still look as good as the ones going up today.

This is Countryside’s national flagship scheme and as much planning has gone into the street scenes as into the house types.

Many of the houses are built around quadrangles with parking and play areas in the centre but on the current phase there’s a wide curved cul-de-sac with a promenade of mature trees down the centre that has a Continental feel. All the properties facing here have sold.

Ashbourne 4 bed show home

It’s the space that’s good, and the planting and the thought about where people will park and put their bins and how they will walk through the development. There is a chatty buzz about the place and the opening of the new primary school last September means an influx of parents and kids twice a day.

Trained chef Mark Ryan, 27, the owner of Matchsticks, has lived in the area all his life and used to run a café just down the road at Mocha Parade.

He now serves up a café menu of good breakfasts and fresh sandwiches and toasties during the day with a more ambitious menu in the evening in a large space fitted out with wood tables and bright walls. He does a good trade in takeaway sandwiches and is going to be offering Sunday lunches from this weekend.

He’s been open six months, says trade has been good and he likes the way the development is going. When I call in there’s a mix of workmen, a couple of mums and a group of glamorous girls maybe from the beauty salon next door who take over the large centre table.

His sister-in-law Gemma Brookes-Ryan, 28, runs the shop next door, Party Gems, selling everything from balloons, party decorations and cards to flowers, gifts and wedding stationery.

It’s heartening to see local independents staking a claim and investing in their area.

Because of its relentless building programme New Broughton has attracted substantial chunks of government money to help people buy their own home by funding the deposit.

Interior of show home

Starting point is a one bedroom apartment with a full market valuation of £70,000 which can be bought for £59,500 through Shared Equity up to a four bedroom house which can be bought with a mortgage of £144,500. According to the sales team the one bed will cost you £313 a month. Cheaper than renting.

The designs and layouts are good, all have lots of light and the four bedroom Dene has a terrace off the masterbedroom.

And prices on re-sales seem to be holding up well. Hunters currently have a nice two bed in The Vibe which is on the market for £97,000 including secure parking.

Around and about there are plans for an assisted living development for the elderly on a site further up Great Clowes Street on the right and Godliman and Watson have done a good job on their live/work units and apartments in the restored villas opposite Albert Park.

On the downside the walk into the city currently involves walking through or past the run down housing that remains, mostly boarded and about to be demolished and you can’t help thinking that Salford would have been better off improving the road and pavements here to create a more pleasant route rather than bollarding Chapel Street.

Countryside has just been signed up to tackle the vast wastelands of Higher Broughton where row upon row of terraces have recently been demolished after standing boarded up and empty for years. That must be a good thing.

New Broughton Village. www.newbroughtonvillage.co.uk