Boost for plans for 500+ homes in Stockport
Developer Russell LDP has increased the number of homes it plans to build on 75 acres off Chester Road in Woodford, now that the site has been allocated for housing in the council’s draft local plan.
Russell LDP and landowner JAG Woodford submitted plans for 554 homes to Stockport Council last year. At the time, the site was not allocated for development and the council had previously declared it was unwilling to release any Green Belt for housing.
However, in the intervening months, the local authority has earmarked the site for around 545 homes in the latest draft of its emerging local plan.
Subsequently, Russell LDP has tweaked its plans to provide 567 homes in total, including 423 standard homes and 144 care units – an increase of 13 homes compared to the original plan.
Stantec is advising on planning matters. To learn more about the development, search for reference number DC/096927 on Stockport Council’s planning portal.
The developer can proceed through planning with more certainty following the site’s allocation for development in the emerging local plan. If the site had remained protected as Green Belt, Russell would have had to work harder to make its case for approval.
However, while the development is now supported by policy, it does not automatically mean Stockport Council’s planning committee will approve the plans. There has been vocal opposition to proposals around Woodford in recent years including over plans for Harrow Estate’s 540-home extension to Woodford Garden Village.
Without an up-to-date local plan and able to demonstrate only 1.77 years of land supply, Stockport Council is under pressure to deliver more homes. Its Green Belt is coming under increasing pressure with developers seizing the opportunity to deviate from the authority’s brownfield-first approach to development.
Stockport’s draft Local Plan said 550 homes for this site, not 545.
The development is not “now supported by policy” – the local plan still has to go through its final round of consultation and then be submitted before going through an examination in public, before it might possibly be adopted. That’s still 18 months away probably, at least. If there were no objections to it then I guess the council could start applying the local plan but they’ve said they received over 7000 responses to their previous consultation and I doubt they were all in support.
By Anonymous
Stockport Council has given up. Pathetic.
By Mr N
Perfect! More houses in an area without a single supermarket, major school, minor roads, existing congestion, no GP surgery, no leisure facilities etc. The list just goes on.
By Anonymous
Once Adlington New Town moves forward, and essentially amalgamates with the BAE Woodford site, you would have thought a dedicated high school, foodstore and other essential facilities will be required.
By T.D.Smith
@Anonymous, July 16, 2026 at 12:35 pm
If you think there is a commercially viable gap in the market for a supermarket in the area then feel free to share your proposals for setting one up. The adjacent aerodrome redevelopment has a commercial element to it, which could include a small supermarket, that has permission but is yet to to be implemented.
The primary school on the adjacent aerodrome site is due to be expanded off the back of the additional development there. It will have more capacity than required to meet the needs of that development and this. The nearest high schools have capacity (at least they have enough for the additional development at the adjacent aerodrome redevelopment – the council will seek contributions for more places if there is a projected shortfall) and are within statutory walking distances.
The roads will be required to be upgraded, if required, so that they can operate safely and without severe congestion being caused.
Creating GP surgery capacity is very difficult because they are essentially private businesses commissioned by the NHS. There might be space in the commercial part of the adjacent aerodrome site, which is yet to be built, which could be used for something like this.
No leisure facilities…. covering a lot of different things in one go with that but, again, feel free to come up with your own commercial proposition.
By Anonymous
Great! More traffic jams to sit in and pollute the future of our children and grandchildren.
By Anonymous
Brown field first, leave Green Belt land alone. The definition of Grey Belt land needs to be redefined to make it precise to protect the Green Belt. Are these new homes really needed. Can the existing supporting infrastructure (e.g. doctors, schools and foul drainage treatment systems) cope with this new demand in a semi rural area? Go away developer & do not come back until improvements in all the improvements to the local services have been made because the current services cannot cope.
By Christopher K Evans
I moved just off didsbury Rd from Lancashire Hill with the right to buy, witch me and my wife did. We got planning permission off stockport council to extend out in are ground floor flat to make it easier for my wife to use due to her long illness she has suffered with. I have been self employed all my life and my wife who had so much to give as a qualified accountant, B.a honer at university + the most important to her was being a teacher to children. Stockport home’s and counsellor Collin foster put a stop to it. The kicker is that they demolished a school at the back of my garden to build on. Mind F…
By Anonymous
It looks like the developers can do what they want, with no improvement to the infrastructure, schools or the hospitals.
By Anthony Nield
I can’t see these being affordable homes, Who needs all these homes when our population is shrinking with each generation,,?
By Anonymous
Woodford Garden village is in fact a brown field site, being formerly industrial. All the other developments in the area are urban infill on literally farmers fields. Unfortunately there is a serious lack of strategic planning it is literally the “Wild West” with developers packing in max houses with absolutely no thought to sustainability and worst of all inadequate roads and other infrastructure.
By Steven
Where is the infrastructure. I was in a corridor at Stepping Hill Hospital for 26 hours, no dentists and not enough schools. No more houses
By Anonymous
This and the extension to Woodford Garden Village aren’t the only proposed developments in the area either. Planning only takes one development into account. There are numerous planning applications in this area. Which will impact traffic congestion, most of these proposed developments vehicles will be spilling out on to Hall Moss Lane. Along side all these proposed developments there is a lack of public transport. (One train and hour, none on Sundays – one bus an hour with a sporadic service in the evening And yet the developers all say Woodford Is “well connected” with good transport links and services! However, none are willing to improve these issues and neither are the liberal democrats. For all they say in their leaflets to households in the lead up to local election, they are not doing anything to restrict the applications.
By Anonymous
@Christopher K Evans “Are these homes really needed?” – Yes, and tens of thousand of them are needed. So if a few fields need to go so every family can have a decent house with a garden they call home, then so be it! 2% of land in England is built on, if raising that figure to 2.5% means everyone can live happily, I say let’s do it!
By MC