Manchester Airport car park back at committee

Proposals for an 800-space car park are back at Cheshire East Council’s planning committee after being deferred in August.

The plans, which are again minded to approve, were deferred “in order for further information to be provided by the applicant in relation to the need for the car park and the lack of alternative options.”

The 310,000 sq ft site is on the Green Belt and includes the demolition of residential buildings 48 and 52 Moss Lane and associated outbuildings.

Manchester Airport is growing increasingly congested, and the proposals are set to impact on the reduction in drop-offs and taxi journeys to the airport. The limitations of public transport, lack of capacity in existing car parking facilities over the summer, and reduction of third-part off-site car parking are also considered factors which make the scheme minded to approve.

In its resubmitted proposal, Manchester Airport has included three subsections in its summary note.

The first, ‘policy’, makes the point that airports have long been a special case in terms of Green Belt policy as they can’t be built in urban areas. The Government’s aviation policy “supports the growth of Manchester up to the capacity of its existing runways. This overall growth inevitably has to include the expansion of facilities which underpin the airport’s core operation.”

The second was ‘ecology’, which states that “a comprehensive mitigation strategy has been agreed”, which includes a new habitat on site and to the south.

The third was ‘need for the development’, which says that failure to grow the car park offer “will result in significant operational disruption, congestion, and problems for passengers.”

Since the deferral, one letter objecting to the plans has been received which states that the “access is too close to the new junction on Styal Road, and that the car park should be access off Moss Lane or further down Styal Road.”