Cheshire East Council is planning to consult local residents on whether a plot of land in Alderley Edge should be identified for housing development.
The Council carried out a consultation on the Development Strategy for the Local Plan, which will form the basis of planning decisions until 2030, between 15th January and 26th February this year. This prompted developers, land owners and other interested parties to suggest further sites.
Amongst these 'new' sites brought forward is land to the north of Beech Road, which has been submitted to the Council by How Planning, on behalf of the landowners, for the development of 200 to 250 dwellings.
Click here to view a map of the site which lies to the south of the A34 bypass and east of the railway line.
In September I reported that Val Sims and her two brothers Alan and Dudley Wain, who own approximately 150 acres of land east of the A34 bypass, have put together a proposal for creating a new country park called 'The Meadows' on Green Belt land between Alderley Edge and Wilmslow - in return for allowing them to use the rest of the Green Belt land for housing.
A section of this land, to the north of Beech Road, which formed part of the country park proposal, is one of 23 sites which have been brought forward.
These sites have not been the subject of consultation before so the Council is proposing to carry out a short consultation, with residents and stakeholders, to seek views on these 'new' sites that have emerged in recent months.
The decision to consult will be taken at a special meeting of the Strategic Planning Board on May 1st. If approved a four week consultation linked to the Local Plan is proposed from May 3rd, during which views from the public will be sought regarding the future use of this land for housing development.
CEC is not proposing the site at this stage – but merely identifying it as a possible option for consideration. Comments on the merits of the sites will therefore invited on that basis and should it be thought to possess potential for subsequent inclusion within the Local Plan, then additional work would be carried out to further assess its suitability.
Councillor David Brown, Deputy Leader of Cheshire East Council, said: "In order that we can be sure that we have properly considered all available options we are therefore bringing these sites to the public's attention to ensure that the plan is robust.
"This does not mean the Council supports the development of these sites. We have reached no view at all on their merits at this stage and we are seeking people's views because they have not featured in any previous stage of the local plan. These sites have been proposed by developers to achieve their business objectives.
"In creating a new plan we need to be sure that we have considered all reasonable alternatives in terms of our strategy and potential development sites. We have to ensure that alternatives are considered and will have to pass sustainability and environmental tests before any are accepted as part of our wider consideration of the Local Plan.
"Earlier in the year we had extensive consultation on our new Local Plan - and in response received well over 10,000 comments back.
"Some of these have proposed alternative development sites that have featured neither in the Draft Local Plan or the preceding Town Strategies.
"We therefore need to bring these sites to public attention and find out what the public think of them.
"We will be consulting on Alternative Site Options for four weeks, beginning May 3rd.
"I should stress that the Council is not positively proposing any of these sites for development at this stage - these are merely sites that have been presented to us as options.
"Rather than keep these under wraps we want to know what everyone thinks.
"Many of these sites, I believe will be unacceptable but there may be some hidden jewels.
"We have formed no view as to the merits of these sites - so please gives us your views."
The Council is currently developing a new Local Plan which will be the Development Plan for Cheshire East until 2030. It will contain planning strategy, policies and site allocations. It will consider how much housing is needed, including the mix of types and sizes of new homes, and the needs for other types of land-use such as employment, retail and leisure uses.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Having looked at the map, the obvious, and least offensive access road would be from the A34 (across more green, unallocated land) otherwise access points are Heyes Lane, The Circuit or Beech Road, or a combination. None of the above are particularly practical and any access from the south side of the plot is going to significantly increase traffic on Heyes Lane and Davey Lane which is already a 'rat-run' at peak times.
primary and secondary schools etc.??
If access was given to Heyes lane then all the fields may as well be built on,which is probably the big plan.
The field at Beech road however,constantly floods with very little rainfall.
Also i think the large oaks at Beech Close now have preservation orders on them.
The other thing to think of is that if a builder is making millions, cutting down a few trees with orders on them and paying a few grand in fines is just a hinderence to them!!
I did hear that Wilmslow's Councillors did attend as did all the other local councillors.
Or is this another case that we the residents of Alderley Edge dont matter and have no say, and our locol representatives think it not inportant enough to attend.
We should be trying to maintain the green belt land, look at how many offices are being built that are not being used, where homes could be built.