Redrow asks for more at Wrexham Road
Plans for 130 homes next to the Kings Moat garden village strategic allocation have been lodged with Cheshire West and Chester Council by the housebuilder.
Working with planner Lichfields, Redrow – now part of the Barratt David Wilson empire – is seeking outline permission for a proposal billed as Wrexham Road Extension, on the south-western edge of Chester.
On the team with Lichfields are Planit, RPS, betts, Hepworth Acoustics, Powers, TEP, Waterco, RSK ADS, and SLR Consulting.
The land sits immediately south of the 1,300-home Wrexham Road strategic allocation, with Redrow stating that 45% of homes will be affordable on the extension plot.
This is in line with a policy linked to the “golden rules” defining Grey Belt, which states that affordable homes should be 15 percentage points above that set for local schemes generally.
The site in question is around 16.8 acres of agricultural land, between Lache Lane to the west and the Wrexham Road park & ride to the east – this connects to the A483, linking Chester with the North Wales Expressway. Around six acres will remain as open space.
It is located within the residential area of Lache, which offers local services, community facilities and two primary schools. The Kings Moat garden village development is to include another school, along with local centre retail and amenities.
Kings Moat’s southern portion was advanced with a hybrid consent, with full consent given, and now enacted, for 483 homes. Outline consent was given for the other facilities, with the school now on site, as recorded in Lichfields’ planning statement. Taylor Wimpey is the lead developer here.
The northern part of Kings Moat, where Redrow is leading, was detailed consent given in 2019 for the phased delivery of 786 homes.
Plus Dane is on board as the social housing partner at Kings Moat. Still awaiting determination within Kings Moat is an application for a care home and business space off Moat Lane, submitted in late 2025. Liberty Properties is behind the care home, with Sainsbury’s and Costa lined up within the retail & leisure offer.
Redrow has held pre-application discussions with CWAC over the extension site, with matters discussed including the council’s current lack of a five-year housing land supply and what requirements would need to be met for a Grey Belt application at the site – Lichfields sets out its Grey Belt case at length in its planning statement.
The plans have also undergone public consultation, with 86% of the 66 respondents being broadly unsupportive of the proposals as recorded in online feedback forms.
Want to know more? The planning documents can be viewed on CWAC’s planning portal using the reference 26/02034/OUT.
This makes complete sense. Redrow have made a really decent job of the existing site in what is a really significant extension of the city.
By Rich X
Chester has a lack of new housing, however its highly likely these will be rammed in with very little gardens, adequate parking or street trees. I feel sorry for the existing residents on Lache Lane which will have homes built very close to their back fence. I bet they`ll ignore any of the feedback and just stick to their usual boring anywhere ‘architecture’.
By GetItBuilt!
86% broadly unsupportive? That bad huh!
By Anonymous
Of course they do – infrastructure-illiterate builders see the A55 as a target for their sprawl developments – eventually they’ll decide that building the other side of it is a good idea, and Wrexham/Chester/Ellesmere Port/Flintshire will be one giant West Midlands-style nightmare. One of my favorite things about this specific ‘development’ is the juxtaposition of the ‘Goodbye from Chester – Heritage City’ sign, and the ‘Taylor Wimpey’ sign with misaligned letters on the side of one of demonstration houses.
By John Smith