Cheshire snub for Audlem in Gladman deal

Audlem looks set to lose out on any cash deal done over the proposed Gladman development unless Cheshire East councillors ignore their own planners' advice.

A report to Cheshire East's Strategic Planning Board next week recommends that Gladman be asked to pay for new speed signs, affordable homes and an estate skate park if it gets the go-ahead to build up to 120 homes at Little Heath.

But a list of village projects that could be funded through a Section 106 agreement fail to get a mention in the report's recommendations.

An Audlem Parish Council 'wish list' of local projects has been totally ignored as has an appeal from the Public Hall committee for cash to help in building a new extension.

The snub comes despite specific written requests made to Cheshire East to include village projects in any S106 deals done with Gladman.

And it comes in the wake of a huge £2.5 million S106 agreement won from developers Taylor Wimpey to fund restoration works at Combermere Abbey in return for building 43 homes near Aston

The report to the Strategic Planning Board meeting on October 9th recommends that Cheshire East Council contests the appeal by Gladman to build homes at Little Heath.

But it also outlines a list of projects that Gladman could be required to fund if the project does eventually get the go-ahead. These projects include:

• £10,000 towards speed limit changes.
• £261,483 for extra secondary school places.
• Provision of an on-site open space including a skate park.
• Establishment of a private management company to maintain the open space.
• A third of homes to be affordable housing.

The report only mentions a 'wish list' of projects submitted by Audlem Parish Council for cash to improve Audlem's sewers, fund a public hall upgrade, improve pedestrian access in the village centre, help with traffic calming, provide money for allotments and additional village car parking but it does not include any of these in its own official 'wish list'.

And a separate written appeal by Public Hall Building Committee chairman, Roland Hall, for money towards funding a £500,000 extension of Audlem's Public Hall gets only a fleeting mention in the report.

It is to be hoped that councillors on next week's Strategic Planning Board will recognise that securing S106 funds for community projects in Audlem would be a politically sensible move if Cheshire East fails to win the appeal and the Gladman development does eventually get the go-ahead.

After all, Gladman Developments Ltd only went to appeal after Cheshire East failed to determine its planning application within the statutory 13 weeks.

And the reasons given for that failure to act were, according to the council's cabinet leader on housing, Cllr Don Stockton, the "sheer weight of objections" and the technical problems with the council's own website.

The handling of the Gladman application by Cheshire East has already come under severe criticism from many quarters in the village of Audlem.

The latest snub will almost certainly fuel even greater anger over what many will regard as shabby treatment of Audlem by Cheshire East Council.

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