Cheshire East Council will NOT appeal a controversial decision by the Secretary of State to allow a massive housing development in Stapeley, Nantwich.
It means Muller Properties are now allowed to build phase one of their proposed “Nantwich South” development.
That is 189 houses on land between Broad Lane, Peter de Stapleigh Way and Stapeley Gardens, as well as an access road off Peter de Stapleigh Way.
Pat Cullen, of campaign group Protect Stapeley, said he was “sad and appalled” and the move will anger thousands of people who fought and signed petitions.
The move also goes against the so-called Cheshire East Local Plan, which indicated the site was NOT favoured for development.
A Cheshire East Council spokesperson said today: “The ruling by the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, recognises that the application is not in line with the development plan overall and is not in accordance with policies within the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy, the Crewe and Nantwich replacement local plan and Stapeley and Batherton neighbourhood plan.
“He also recognises that Cheshire East Council can demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, the confirmation of which should mean that the government’s policy of ‘tilted balance’ in favour of housing development no longer applies within Cheshire East.
“However, despite this, he has assigned more significant weight to the Government’s drive to build more houses in making his decision.
“It is particularly regrettable that Mr Jenrick has decided to overrule the local authority’s decision to refuse planning permission in favour of imposing a national government required to build more houses – a decision that Cheshire East Council believes will be to the detriment of the residents of Nantwich.
“Having sought legal advice, it is with deep disappointment that we have been advised that the Secretary of State has acted lawfully and there is no basis on which to launch a legal challenge.
“This is undoubtedly as disappointing for residents as it is for the council.
“However, we cannot support the use of public money to make a legal challenge where there are no identifiable legal grounds on which to do so.
“Nonetheless, the council will be raising this matter directly with the Secretary of State and would encourage our partners who share our concern to do the same.”
Cllr Toni Fox, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for planning, said: “I am extremely disappointed by both the decision, and the clearly considered wording of the decision made by the secretary of state, which has effectively blocked any opportunity for the council to lodge a legal appeal.
“The interests of local residents, supported by Cheshire East Council, have been outweighed by a national political imperative to build more houses.
“This decision by the secretary of state will be a huge disappointment to many local residents, as it is to the council, because it clearly goes against the principle of local decision making and will add even more pressure to local services that are already under strain due to the number of new houses being built.
“Alongside the council raising this directly with the secretary of state, I will be pursuing this politically through our joint administration in addition to lobbying for the support of the borough’s Conservative MPs.
“I would encourage local residents, ward members and town and parish councils to do the same.”
Pat Cullen, of campaign group Protect Stapeley, said: “I’m sad and appalled.
“It means that the road, houses and industrial units will all be built on green fields with the potential for another 900 or so houses.
“It’s a very sad day for local residents – our views simply ignored.
“CEC has spent millions of pounds of taxpayers money and hundreds of hours of work producing a Local Plan, has had input to the Plan from local people and businesses across the whole of Cheshire East with the result that local peoples’ opinions, inputs and hard work have been ignored.
“The same can be said of the Neighbourhood Plan.
“The idea of Neighbourhood Plans is to give a voice to local people to plan the future of their areas.
“Again, all their hours of work, all the opinions they sought from local people have been ignored.
“This cannot be right. This cannot be democracy.”
(Images courtesy of Jonathan White)
Oh yesssss here is my ideal home, I am right next to a super industrial building, it is what everyone craves for, Sea Views, Mountains, Forest and oh now the new fab Industrial buildings
Don’t think there will be many buyers flocking to move there do you?!!
Watch out for an application to withdraw the Industrial units due to economic downturn or some other reason and then put in a revised application for more housing.
What is the point of the Council have their local plans etc if they are ignored and also the wishes of the locals? Pathetic.
This has been on the cards for years, and even then no formal notice was given to the railways. Given we have 3 crossings close to the town, good luck with leaving the area for work each day.
The main worry is why would you put industrial units in with housing? I can think of many better sites for that. Is this maybe why it has now been accepted as I don’t remember anything like that on the plans ten years ago. I feel sales for this type of development will suffer, as there are nicer parts of Nantwich to live in at the moment.Plus now there will be no provision for affordable homes either
Indeed we will need to highlight living in an industrial site will be no fun, noise early till late, traffic lorries vans joy!! they even have allotments going in, good luck with that as lovely an idea of an allotment is it won’t stay looking good for long, far better to fill the area with trees, seating and a communal BBQ kitchen so maybe neighbours can actually communicate and make friends
Anybody seen our lightweight MP recently?
Yes an ideal place to put industrial units, cannot help but feel that this is how you get plans passed now, prove you can not only build a house but also provide school shops and somewhere to work all on one stop site. Good luck with selling a house with an industrial unit overlooking your garden, I no one bought a house there that would send a firm message to the chancers out there