Spades in ground for 1,500-home Handforth Garden Village
The initial stages of work are underway at the 300-acre residential scheme, with Manchester and Cheshire Construction kicking off the creation of a gateway to the development a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.
Cheshire East Council said last year that it expected work to start on a package of highways, enabling, and remediation work in September 2026 after years of planning the 1,500-home Handforth Garden Village. Now, Manchester and Cheshire Construction is on site delivering a footpath as part of the scheme’s infrastructure.
The start of work means the planning permission for the development, handed down in 2023, is now locked in and will not expire on its three-year anniversary.
Councillor Mick Warren, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for planning, housing and regeneration, said: “Today marks a really important step towards creating a new Garden Village at Handforth that residents can be proud of.”
The scheme is being delivered by MADE Partnership, a joint venture between Barratt Redrow, Homes England, and Lloyds Banking Group and Warren said “strong progress” has been made in the development of the plans since the parties signed an exclusivity agreement a year ago.
“Reaching these latest milestones is a marker of MADE Partnership’s commitment to the garden village and demonstrates the value of the public and private sectors working together to deliver significant growth,” Warren said.
“Through our close partnership working, we share an ambition to create a sustainable, high-quality place that delivers new homes, jobs, community facilities and green spaces, while supporting the long-term economic growth of Cheshire East.”
Stephen Kinsella, MADE Partnership managing director, said: “Starting work onsite at the Garden Village at Handforth represents a key milestone for MADE Partnership.
“Working collaboratively with Cheshire East Council and other stakeholders has enabled us to bring the project forward at pace, identifying some adjustments that will aid delivery of our compelling, shared vision.
“Our aim, going forward, is to formalise our relationship with Cheshire East into an investment partnership to share the rewards of our collaboration.
“By working in partnership with the council and other stakeholders, we will create a community where homes, jobs and nature thrive, supported by infrastructure and amenities that makes the Handforth Garden Village work.”
Handforth Garden Village was one of the 14 government-designated garden villages announced in 2017. The project, which would sit on 300 acres east of the A34, includes the building of 1,500 homes; 245,000 sq ft of employment space; a through school; a country park, and a 174-bed extra care scheme.
MADE has also applied for permission to make several minor tweaks to the project, including relocating the proposed school to a flatter site and increasing the heights of buildings in some areas of the masterplan to a maximum of four storeys.
You can see the approved planning application for Handforth Garden Village by searching reference number 19/0623M on Cheshire East Council’s planning portal. The planning project team included E*Scape Urbanists, IBI (now part of Arcadis), PGA Landscape Architecture, and Frost Planning. The planning tweaks can be viewed by searching for reference number 26/2366/VOC on Cheshire East Council’s planning portal.
School, 174 bed extra care scheme, but no doctors/dentists and no doubt the sick will go to the already overburdened Stepping Hill Hospital. There shouldn’t be any developments in this area until provision is made to expand the healthcare infrastructure, i.e. a new hospital at the very least.
By Anonymous
A new health centre with a community diagnostics centre would be needed for Wilmslow as a minimum now.
By Rye
Anonymous 5.34pm, the people who will use the extra care scheme will not come from out of space, they will already be part of the community and already be using local doctors, dentist and hospitals. This looks like it will be a great facility and not a burden on services.
By Anonymous
Another piece of the greenbelt gone
By Anonymous
The houses are for a growing population hence the obvious need for additional health care facilities Cheshire East are completely useless, this development is only going ahead as they own the land and will make them money that will be wasted, possibly another unused car park in Crewe.
By Anonymous
why do people think this is greenbelt? educate yourselves!
By Anonymous
Another set of healthcare provision tropes in the comments here, which I don’t dismiss, but completely ignores the fact that when this country was a great dynamic power in the world we just did stuff and solved these things one behind.
By Rich X
No GP and no Dentist mentioned
By Anonymous
People say “what about GPs and dentsits” or “what about the traffic” as if there things haven’t been considered. They are considered (in great detail) as part of the assessment of the planning application. If you look into the background of this, or any other planning application before jumping to the comments to share lazy ill-informed opinions, you’d notice consultation with the NHS and local highways authority. Lastly private sector housebuilders don’t build hospitals (thankfully) – that’s the responsibility of our government.
By Fed-upPlanner
This isn’t greenbelt.
By Anonymous
Oh well. At least there aren’t going to be any other houses built round there, in Woodford or Bramhall or Cheadle Hulme. So there will be loads of green space left.
[Double checks]. Oh.
Seems a bit odd that there is building on the nice ‘nature’ part of the site close to the busy, noisy A34, but then turning some scrappy farmland into ‘nature’.
A bit like Woodford Garden Village, it looks quite like it is designed quite nicely to live in but if you want to get out of the estate driving is the best option. Hopefully it will have a fast frequent bus service to Wilmslow or Didsbury to connect with other public transport. Woodford was meant to get that but it just got sort-of forgotten. There is opportunity to provide nice foot/cycle ways between Handforth, Woodford and further afield too, but I’m not holding my breath, as again that was promised with Woodford and it never materialised.
By Anonymous
Anyone who has left a comment saying it isn’t green belt look on google maps! It’s green with no houses! Go and get your eyes tested!
By The voice of reason
The site, to correct a comment is the old RAF Handforth/Wilmslow land. However yet another “care scheme” approved, in an already saturated area for care homes
By Anonymous
The voice of reason – just because an area looks green on a Google map doesn’t make it greenbelt. Greenbelt is a planning policy designation of identified land.
By Anonymous
The voice of reason probably needs to understand that land being fields with no houses on it doesn’t make it Green Belt. Perhaps, instead of this basic and wrong approach, Tvor could look at the adopted polices map for Cheshire East. They will then see that this is an allocated site and is not Green Belt. Like it or don’t like it – that’s up to you. But that’s the fact. You need more than just eyes and access to Google Maps to be able to determine these things, Tvor. I hope this was helpful to you.
By Specsaver Stu
The Voice of Reason should use their excellent vision to do some reading and learn what the green belt actually is and how it works.
By Sten
Another cul-de-sac nightmare in Cheshire – shock! A Truman-esque collection of disconnected homes and roads that lead nowhere. Also, some people don’t know what Green Belt means; being green doesn’t make it part of the Green Belt
By Anonymous
Great to see homes being built in a desirable area! Makes you think though that maybe the now closed Alderley Edge Girls school could be bought by the council and re-opened as a state school to help ease the burden of maybe an extra 400-500 secondary school aged children?
By MC