Double developer delight at CWAC committee
At the second time of asking, Wain Homes secured the go-ahead for 240 homes on the edge of Ellesmere Port. Also approved: 86 homes south of Kelsall.
Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee met yesterday, and wrapped up proceedings inside two hours with three approvals.
First up was Wain Homes, which is looking to advance a site of 30.3 acres, north of Dunkirk Way in Backford Cross. The professional team includes DGL Associates, Emery Planning, Trevor Bridge Associates, and Tetra Tech advising on transport.
The plan is for the development to be accessed via Old Meadow Drive, which currently serves phase one of a partially completed Redrow scheme billed as The Pastures. The site is within Ellesmere Port’s settlement boundary and is categorised within CWAC’s development plan as one of its four principal settlements for new housing.
September’s CWAC planning committee deferred a decision though, requesting more information around highway safety and offsite highway works, in an area that is seeing a volume of housing delivered adjacent to an A-road.
Wain’s team submitted a clarification statement dealing with matters that have been provisionally agreed with highways officers, looking at junction capacity, junction form and the appropriateness of any planning conditions linked to offsite highway improvements. A new puffin crossing will be introduced to the main road.
That did the job, and Cllr Tommy Blackmore moved to approve, stating his satisfaction that the additional information had assuaged doubts. Ten votes were given for, none against and one member abstained.
Scheme documents can be seen on CWAC’s planning portal with the reference 23/03825/FUL.
In Kelsall, eight miles east of Chester, applicants Richard, Linda and David Blything had applied to demolish buildings on a nine-acre site at Green Lane Farm, to be replaced by 86 homes, 30% of them affordable. Only the farmhouse would remain of the existing stock.
Planner Asteer and eScape Urbanists are working with the applicants on the bid for outline consent.
The application – reduced from 99 homes in its first iteration – was called in by ward member Cllr Ted Lush, highlighting three issues: its location outside the Kelsall settlement boundary, encroaching into countryside, and blurring the settlement boundaries of Kelsall and Willington.
Kelsall Parish Council also objects, along with around 50 residents – although there have also been around 20 letters of support.
Although outside a settlement boundary, the site is in the local development plan and is not Green Belt. CWAC’s lack of a five-year housing land supply was also a factor in the officer recommendation to approve.
This proposal saw more discussion that the Wain scheme, with a public speaker stating that the scheme would create a “substantial and incongruous lump” in a rural setting. There were also concerns voiced over noise and odours from a nearby brewing site, but officers assured members that technical advisors had raised no major issues.
Six members voted for and three against. Scheme documents can be viewed on the CWAC portal, reference 24/03791/OUT.
Approval was also given for a 10-acre extension of the Northwich Biogas anaerobic digestion plant at Lostock Gralam, enabling new site infrastructure to be added.
