A massive new industrial park near Nantwich has been given the green light by Cheshire East Council planners.
They granted outline planning consent for the 65-hectare site on the former Wardle Airfield off the A51.
Plans by landowner Haughton Estate include turning the site into a 1.5m sq ft industrial and distribution park.
The site is to be renamed the Cheshire Green Employment Park, and will be behind the landmark NWF Group farm feeds supplier on the Nantwich Road.
The development would be accessed by a roundabout on the A51 just south of where the Shropshire Union Canal crosses
under the main road.
Developers will be required to pay towards traffic improvements along the A51, and in particular at the Burford Crossroads where planners say there would be a “major adverse impact”.
A number of parish councils raised concerns of the impact on traffic loads through local villages like Alpraham, Barbridge and Calveley, and called for improvements.
Cheshire East Council is proposing a £1.8 million redesign of the Burford Crossroads junction, and developers for Haughton Estate have agreed to pay almost 25% of that cost.
They will also pay 10% towards a £1.4 million improvement of the Alvaston roundabout where the A51 and the A530 meet close to Sainsbury’s supermarket.
And improvements to the Peacock, Reaseheath and Cheerbrook roundabouts could also have to be made to cater for the expected additional traffic the new industrial park will cause.
The application was decided by the council’s Strategic Planning Board today (December 4).
When is a new road going to be built between the M6 and Chester?
If this industrial estate at Wardle is built for distribution units the roads will be completely blocked between Sainsbury’s Nantwich and Chester.
There are already people living on the roadside who are suffering from the fumes of standing traffic.
When there are traffic problems on the M6 there is an enormous amount of traffic along this route. No self respecting distributor should make the mistake of moving here until there is a road away from the estate on the west side.
Are there plans to protect the visual impact of this vast development?
Pretty soon Cheshire East planners will have joined up Tarporley with Crewe in a giant sprawl of poorly planed and unsustainable ribbon development. How will the employees get to this massive employment area? Why could it not have been built near a motorway junction instead of pulling more lorries along the congested A roads of mid Cheshire?
I wonder whether the cumulative impacts of traffic from the new Employment Park combined with that generated from the large expansion of Kingsley Fields (also feeding onto the A51) have been accurately predicted and fully considered by the planners? The potential impacts are unlikely to be completely mitigated by tweaks to existing junctions and the new roundabouts will make matters worse. I feel very sorry for the residents of all the local villages.
How much new industrial estate is needed in the area? According to the sign, they are currently building 1.5 million sq feet on the outskirts of Crewe. This would be the same size again. If there really is that much demand for new industry in the area then great, but I do wonder if there is.
When is the industrial estate starting thanks