Chester City Council voted on Wednesday to grant full planning permission to the revised Northgate development, ending a saga that has dragged on for the better part of a decade. The scheme, which will transform a large section of the city centre including the former market hall site, includes a new cinema, retail units, a hotel and around 200 apartments. Work is expected to begin in March 2027, with the first phase due to open in 2029.
The original Northgate scheme was approved in 2016 but collapsed when the lead developer withdrew in 2019, citing rising construction costs. A second version was submitted in 2021 but ran into objections over its impact on the city's historic character and the scale of the proposed hotel. The revised application, submitted last autumn, scaled back the hotel from 180 to 120 rooms and incorporated more traditional materials in the facade design, addressing many of the concerns raised by Historic England.
Council leader Cllr Patricia Holt called the vote "a turning point for Chester." She acknowledged that the delays had been frustrating but argued that the revised scheme was "significantly better" than what was originally proposed. "We took our time to get this right," she said. "The city centre has been waiting long enough, but it was worth it to end up with something we can be genuinely proud of."
Not everyone was convinced. The Chester Civic Trust, which had opposed the original scheme, said it had "reservations" about the retail element and questioned whether the market for new high street shops was strong enough to sustain the development. The trust's chairman, Dr Alan Briggs, said he hoped the council would "keep a close eye on the tenant mix" to ensure the development contributed to the city's character rather than replicating the generic retail offer found in every other British town centre.