Cheshire East earmarks 770 homes for consent

Cheshire East Council is set to meet to discuss a bumper planning agenda next week, with recommendations to approve 770 houses, while rejecting proposals for 200 homes, and a 70,000 sq ft warehouse.

The Fairfield Partnership is proposing to build up to 400 homes and a primary school at Flowers Lane in Leighton. The plot is open countryside, however it is now one of the sites allocated for homes within the revised Cheshire East Local Plan.

Officers have recommended that at Cheshire East Council’s strategic planning committee on 22 February, a decision be delegated to the head of planning, with a suggestion that the project be approved.

At the same meeting, Richborough Estates’ plans for 200 homes on Back Lane in Somerford will also be considered. The plot is also open countryside, but development is considered to be beneficial as it will add houses for market sale and affordable rent to the area, and the developer is making a financial contribution to the Congleton Link Road. However, there is a risk that the scheme could impact on the workings of the nearby Jodrell Bank Telescope.

The development is recommended for approval.

Housebuilders Barratt and David Wilson Homes are seeking full planning permission for a scheme granted outline planning permission in 2013. The companies are proposing that 170 houses by built off Black Firs Lane in Somerford. Since outline consent was granted, the site has also now been included within the Cheshire East Local Plan as part of plans for up to 750 homes around Congleton. Councillors are expected to give consent to construction.

Meanwhile, set to be less lucky at the meeting are projects from Site Plan UK, proposing 200 homes on Bradwell Road in Sandbach, and Euroscape Developments, which has applied for permission to build a 70,000 sq ft warehouse at a site next to Adlington Business Park. Both have been recommended for refusal, due to loss of open countryside and green belt.