Cheshire East set to refuse 40,800 sq ft industrial
Officers have recommended that councillors reject Bolshaw Industrial Powders’ bid to expand its existing storage depot in Sandbach, stating that the harm to the open countryside threatened by the two warehouses outweighs its economic benefits.
Cheshire East Council will debate the application at its southern planning committee meeting next week. The application focuses in on four acres off Holmes Chapel Road, land that has been allocated as open countryside.
Bolshaw has argued that it should be able to expand its existing 9,400 sq ft operations on the site by another 31,400 sq ft because the site has been previously developed (it is the former home of the Saxon Cross Hotel), and is already in use by the company and has been since 2010.
Bolshaw’s planning agent Forefront Development Consultants has also contended that the scheme will enable the company to cease operations at its Peak District National Park location, thus presenting a wider ecological benefit.
However, it is the scale of the new builds – specially around the buildings ridge heights of 38 feet and 30 feet – that has council officers uneasy and presented the reason for refusal.
You can review the application for yourself by searching reference 25/4374/FUL on Cheshire East Council’s planning portal.
In addition to Forefront Development Consultants, the project team includes Elite Ecology, C2C Consulting Engineers, Synergy Environmental Solutions, SBM Safety Solutions, and FFC Landscape Architects.
