CREWE'S booming property market is set to be boosted by a £10m town centre apartment scheme.

Borough planners were expected to approve plans to build 96 apartments at the Kwik Save site off Victoria Street as the Chronicle went to press last night (Tuesday).

The supermarket closed for business on Friday, April 22, after the company decided to sell the land, with two-thirds of the staff being relocated to the stores in Edleston Road and in Sandbach.

The proposals come hot on the heels of Redrow Homes's Sidings development off nearby Dunwoody Way, where work on more than 200 houses and apartments has started.

A series of major housing projects can be expected to follow after Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council committed itself in March to providing an extra 7,600 homes in the borough by 2011.

Cllr Steve Hogben, portfolio holder for the economy, said: 'I welcome plans for new housing in Crewe town centre because it is a very important to the overall regeneration package we want to put in place.

'There is no point in pumping money into the area with projects like the Modus Queensway development and the Phoenix Leisure Park if no-one is going to live there.

'I look forward to hearing similar plans in the pipeline. Once we complete our housing needs survey for Crewe, these developments are going to play a big part in how we make homes in the town affordable, and therefore attractive, to ordinary residents.'

Plans for the apartments show a total of three blocks, one each of two, three and four-storeys high, designed to have a minimum impact on the surrounding street scene.

Developer Pembroke Homes is also expected to be asked to contribute £70,000 toward the upgrade of open public spaces in the vicinity and £24,000 to the Highways Authority for the Crewe Town Centre Access Strategy.

However, that is not likely to ease entirely concerns that such a large development will cause chaos on the neighbourhood's cramped residential streets.

Cheshire County Council's highways department said it would prefer the development to include 100% provision for off-street parking, and several residents, including Father Connor Murphy of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church in St Mary's Street, wrote objections based on traffic safety fears.

Father Murphy said: 'St Mary's Street is something of a rabbit run for traffic heading to the town centre, and it simply will not take the extra traffic.

'Putting in an extra entrance on to the road from the site will cause all sorts of safety issues. It is already difficult enough for residents to park or get in and out of their garages.'