Appeal results are bad news for Audlem

Decisions on a trio of planning appeals have rejected Cheshire East's arguments on its housing supply strategy.

It is bad news for those fighting applications by Gladman and Hockenhull to build new housing estates in Audlem.

The housing supply strategy, outlined in Cheshire East's emerging local plan, is seen as crucial to the council's fight against the rash of housing application in open countryside, including those in Audlem.

But an appeal inspector found Cheshire East's prediction on the number of new houses it could deliver in its emerging Local Plan as being "too optimistic".

The inspector ruled that even the most generous forecast would result in up to 7,500 new homes for Cheshire East under its Local Plan while his estimate, including a backlog of unbuilt homes in recent years, was around 9,000 if it is to meet government targets.

Planning inspector Philip Major ruled: " The Council is unable, on my assessment, to demonstrate a five year supply of deliverable housing sites. This is a substantial material consideration in favour of the proposal."

He granted appeals in favour of housing schemes at Abbey Road and Congleton Road in Sandbach but refused an appeal by Gladman Developments to build 155 homes in Alsager.

However the Alsager refusal was for the demonstrable harm caused to the local countryside and not for the council's housing strategy, an argument that was rejected like the others.

And without an acceptable housing strategy it is not easy to see what grounds Cheshire East now has to fight the Gladman proposals for Audlem.

Earlier this year, Cheshire East council leader Michael Jones, promised Audlem Parish Council he would fight "shoulder to shoulder" with communities like Audlem to defeat speculative development in the region.

But he emphasised at the time that a key strategy in that fight would be to establish that Cheshire East had met its five year housing supply target.

"Once that is proved it will be key to fight all subsequent appeals by developers such as Gladman," he told Audlem councillors.

The village must wait to see if he can fulfil that promise now that the council's housing supply strategy has been called into question.

Councillor Jones said in a recent interview that he is taking legal advice on the inspector's assessment of 9,000 homes needed in the next five years.

"What is disappointing, and something we will look to take legal advice on, is the number requested to achieve the planning inspector's goal has implied build rates which have never been achieved in Cheshire East's history," he said.

"Make no doubt that we will look hard at these numbers and we will look to examine every avenue, but it seems to be perverse that having achieved between 7,000 – 7,500 houses that they want build rates of up to 9,000."

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