Telescopes could skew Cheshire East’s view on 90-home plans
Bridgemount Developments’ hopes of building a neighbourhood at the former Fisons site in Holmes Chapel are likely to be scuppered by the Jodrell Bank observatory’s objection on astronomical grounds.
Cheshire East Council will now have to consider Jodrell Bank’s argument that the development and its residents would “impair the efficiency of the observatory’s telescopes”, muddying “extremely weak” radio frequencies being received from deep space.
Jodrell Bank Observatory, part of the University of Manchester, has searched the skies from the Cheshire site since 1945. It sits three miles away from the proposed development.
Bridgemount Developments’ outline plans, drawn up by e*SCAPE Urbanists and submitted to Cheshire East Council by Asteer Planning, envision a 90-home neighbourhood on the 8.4-acre site off London Road.
Access, active travel connections, and a green infrastructure network covering close to three acres with play areas, public open space, and woodland, serviced by footpaths, are all mapped out within the application.
Currently, proposals suggest 30% of the properties would be affordable, with a housing mix of two, three-, four-, and five-bed houses and bungalows.
Bridgemount Developments acquired the site in 2022 and received consent for a commercial development comprising a 64-bed care home, a medical building, around 21,000 sq ft of office space, 39,100 sq ft of light industrial space, and a day nursery.
In addition, within the former Fisons building, a hotel with a restaurant has been proposed.
However, according to a planning statement, the developer has decided to push for a residential-led scheme instead, noting that a retail development “represents a realistic fall-back position”.
Jodrell Bank is home to many national and international research teams. Credit: Mark McNeil via Unsplash
Howard Hagan, managing director, Bridgemount Developments, said: “Since acquiring the site in 2022, we’ve been committed to delivering a scheme that genuinely reflects the aspirations of the Holmes Chapel community.
“Last summer, we held a public consultation event and invited residents to share their views on our early proposals. The feedback we received was incredibly valuable and has played a key role in shaping this application.
“Our goal is to create a thoughtfully designed neighbourhood that offers quality new homes, helping more individuals and families put down roots in Holmes Chapel.”
Bridgemount is not the only developer to suffer stargazer setbacks – Beluga Group also had an application for homes rejected on astronomical grounds in May.
Jodrell Bank Observatory is at the centre of a wide range of national and international research projects and is actively used by academics and students. Instantly recognisable, it was recognised in 2019 by Unesco as a site of outstanding universal value.
To view the outline plans and objection, use the planning reference number 25/1859/OUT in Cheshire East Council’s planning portal.
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Jodtel bank must not be compromised.
Would the original plan of a Care home and a block of flats for starter homes be a better option and cause less interference to the radio waves.
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Jodrell Bank doesn’t raise such objections for the Blue Dot festival ‘interference’.
By Tony Weston
Good for them – what a pointless place to try to build more housing sprawl.
By John Smith
An interesting scenario; how do you measure the differential of the extant consent for care ,medical, offices and light industrial and potential electrical intensity of use against 90 proposed homes. It’s also being a previously developed site that operated within the Jodrell Bank consultation area without regulation . Its unclear how is its proposed to be governed and regulated in the future, what if the light industrial was a data centre. Is the negative impact between the two proposals so significant.It makes any decision on development ,use and value difficult to make without a good grasp and knowledge of physics!
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What is the point in having bloody councils?If they don’t listen to leave well in alo
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We don/t need more houses, we need a new doctors etc., and all the other facilities that are already stretched beyond capacity
By Ian
Everywhere needs more homes – especially affordable ones.
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Uh oh, Jodrell Bank might be about to find themselves on the receiving end of a ‘mysterious fire ™’
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30% affordable until permission is granted then while the site is under construction resubmit plans to 10%
By Anonymous
For god sake how many more houses do we need round here the way we are going there will be no countryside left. Instead of building convert old disused buildings first
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Goostrey is Goostrey. Jodrell Bank is Jodrell Bank. You know the rules so go and built somewhere else!
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Seems an odd objection. This is a brownfield site in the settlement of Holmes Chapel, surrounded by existing residential, commercial, and industrial development. There are 100’s of houses and other built form in between the site and Jodrell Bank, which is over 3 miles away. How can this one site lead to the interference that they’re implying? Surely, that interference has already been caused by the existing intervening development?
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