Cheshire East moves Garden Village forward

Development of the Handforth Garden Village off the A34 has taken another step forward, with Cheshire East’s cabinet giving the go-ahead for the council’s executive director of place to pursue deals with landowners and developers.

The local authority’s strategic planning board has already approved the consultation draft of the planning framework for the site and signed off on these measures on Tuesday this week. Cheshire East has secured a £23m grant from Homes England to take plans forward.

Handforth Garden Village, which is set to accommodate 1,500 homes by 2030, was one of 14 garden villages named in January 2017 as the Government sought to introduce policy aimed at increasing housing numbers. Other North West locations chosen include Knowsley, Carlisle and Bailrigg, Lancaster.

The draft supplementary planning document sets the quality and design principles for The Garden Village and, once adopted, will form part of the planning policy that any future planning applications submitted for the site will be judged against.

The council has now launched its consultation on the draft SPD, giving local stakeholders, interested parties and the public the opportunity to comment on the framework. The SPD documents can be viewed here.

Cllr Ainsley Arnold, cabinet member for housing, planning and regeneration, said: “The Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy establishes the principle of creating a new plan-led settlement east of Handforth, promoting good growth for the region.

“This implementation strategy is one of the first of a number of steps the council will be taking to ensure the Garden Village becomes a reality as a great place to live and work. We therefore welcome as many comments as possible on the draft document.

“The draft SPD sets out the overarching design principles for the ‘Village Heart’ and each of the character areas of the Garden Village.”

Cheshire East’s development arm Engine of the North will act as lead developer on behalf of the council and will submit a planning application to deliver the Village Heart and infrastructure.

Cllr Jamie Macrae, chairman of Engine of the North, said: “Engine of the North are the custodians of the council’s vision to create a truly sustainable and characterful new village for Cheshire East.

“As over 40 per cent of the site will be green open space, amenity space and habitat protection, the Garden Village will not only be a great place to live but also somewhere for new and existing residents to come and enjoy their surroundings for generations to come.”

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I hope this will become a genuinely environmental ly and socially sustainable project rich in biodiversity, productive landscape fostering a strong sense of community ownership and shared garden settings. This should also mean contemporary building design not just backward looking 1930s style pastiche housing, randomly planted show gardens and overuse of cheshire style railings.

By Adam Ash

Green spaces ? And will these maintained by the local council through council tax OR will developers be allowed to create estate fees in addition to the cost of the property with full council tax still owing?
This new scam creates an ongoing income stream for the developers after the site is finished because the management is sold on to a management company who charge extortionate unregulated fees to residents.
Any planning permission needs to include a guarantee of adoption of roads, play areas and any green spaces.

By Cath Williams

Where is the tram, bus and most importantly local train network to facilitate transport for up to 9,000 new inhabitants in a location already suffering from intolerable traffic congestion.
The new relief road improvements were promised to ease congestion but instead have been unashamedly utilised to forward an argument for 1500 new homes that will make the situation on the roads far worse than presently encountered every day !
This housing estate is an island from which the only escape is by car, has there been traffic flow reports commissioned ? This is going to make people everyday journey to work and school an ongoing nightmare.

By William Murphy

William Murphy – see paragraphs 9.10-9.13 of the draft SPD. Good words – shouldn’t hold your breath that they’ll transpire as something meaningful in due course though.

By the light of the moon

This plan is an overdevelopment of an area with inadequate resources to support it i.e. roads,medical services,schools.We have already suffered years of disruption and nightmare traffic,no more please.Local politicians should visit the area to see the damage they are going to cause.Smaller affordable units are needed,not huge profit making for building firms.These areas will no longer be desirable and there will be a mass exodus leaving waste lands.Supporting politicians will pay the ultimate price at the ballot box.As Wolfie said “”power to the people””.

By The voice of reason

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