Planning application submitted for changes to approved Ballymena housing development

The site of the approved housing development in Ballymena

A planning application has been submitted seeking non-material amendments to a previously approved housing development at Crebilly Road in Ballymena.

The proposal relates to a residential scheme that received planning approval from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in June 2021 for the redevelopment of a 1.3 acre site at 115 Crebilly Road, opposite the Ballykeel 2 estate.

The approved development consists of 16 family homes, associated landscaping, car parking, retaining walls and general site works.

Following the planning approval, the site was brought to market for sale in October 2021. Pipe work was subsequently carried out by NI Water providing infrastructure to connect the site.

The new recent application seeks permission for minor amendments to site levels and windows, with planners being asked to consider the changes as non-material.

Despite receiving approval almost five years ago, work on the development has yet to commence.

Previously approved house elevations (top) and the revised proposed elevations, and the changes to window placements in the side of the terrace.

Former Knockeden Lodge pub site

The site is best known locally as the former home of the Knockeden Lodge pub, which closed a number of years ago and demolished around 2020.

The building, constructed in the early 1970s, occupies land with a much longer history. Before the pub was built, the site was home to a farmhouse known as Knockeen House, which appears on the first series Ordnance Survey map dating back to 1833.

Historically, the farm extended across land that is now occupied by the M2 motorway, reaching as far as a laneway that once led to another farm near the location of the present-day Larne Road roundabout.

In recent years, the vacant site and hardstanding have been described in planning documents as detracting from the character of the area and, at times, being used for bonfires.

Details of the approved scheme

The previously approved block plan for the new development, including landscaping, at the site on Crebilly Road in Ballymena.

The original planning permission was granted following the submission of a detailed planning statement by Galgorm Properties, which sought full approval for the redevelopment of the brownfield site.

Located around 1km south-east of Ballymena town centre and 1km north-west of the A26/M2 Larne Road roundabout, the site sits within the settlement limits of Ballymena and is served by Ulsterbus route 324b, linking the area to Ballykeel and the town centre.

Planners previously accepted the site as a sustainable location for residential development.

The irregularly shaped site extends to approximately 0.5 hectares and has around 100 metres of frontage onto Crebilly Road. The approved scheme provides a mix of terraced, semi-detached and detached two-storey homes, all with three bedrooms, private gardens and two parking spaces per dwelling.

According to the planning statement, the development has a density of 32 dwellings per hectare, which was considered appropriate for the surrounding suburban context, where public sector housing in Ballykeel sits opposite semi-detached homes along Knockeen Road.

Landscaping, access and amenity

Plans include a centrally located shared-surface access from Crebilly Road, designed in line with the Department for Infrastructure’s Creating Places guidance.

Additional tree planting and landscaping are proposed along the road frontage and throughout the site, replacing existing low-quality leylandii trees which were deemed to offer little ecological value.

Each home benefits from private amenity space, with rear gardens exceeding the minimum standards set out in planning guidance. As the development contains fewer than 25 units, no public open space is required.

Noise mitigation measures have also been incorporated into the design following an acoustic assessment, with boundary treatments recommended to reduce the impact of nearby road and motorway noise.

Planning policy context

When the scheme was originally approved, planners concluded it complied with key regional and local planning policies, including the Strategic Planning Policy Statement for Northern Ireland, Planning Policy Statement 7 (Quality Residential Environments) and the Ballymena Area Plan 1986–2001, which remains the adopted local development plan.

The site was confirmed as having no significant natural heritage or ecological constraints, subject to further bat surveys, and drainage assessments were submitted in line with flood risk policy requirements.

What happens next

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s planning department will now assess whether the proposed amendments are genuinely non-material, but it is expected that the changes will receive approval

If agreed, the decision could remove a final hurdle to the long-awaited redevelopment of a prominent brownfield site that has stood idle for years, bringing new family housing to a well-connected part of Ballymena and marking the end of a site long associated with both local history and more recent dereliction.