Gladman housing plans official

The long-awaited plan to build a new housing estate on the edge of Audlem was officially registered by Cheshire East Council today.

The controversial application for outline planning by Congleton-based Gladman Developments Ltd is to build a housing estate on 5.5 acres of green land at Little Heath, off the A529 road to Nantwich.

'Affordable'

The scheme is for up to 120 dwellings, of which 30% will be 'affordable homes' along with highway and associated infrastructure works including pedestrian links, formal and informal public open space, landscaping and commuted sums for necessary community infrastructure.

In a supporting statement Gladman says: "The overarching objectives of the master plan is to provide a good mix of housing sizes and tenures with a range of housing embracing a high quality design philosophy."

Specialist consultants

The application includes no less than 19 supporting statements from specialist consultants covering matters such as hedgerows, archaeology, noise, air quality, flood risk, arboroculture, ecology, travel, transport, landscape, design and access, land quality, community consultation, educational impact, economic impact, renewable energy, sustainability and planning issues.

It also includes a development 'desk study' that covers all aspects of developing the site although building work would be carried out by another developer.

Alleged failure of Cheshire East

The main thrust of Gadman's argument for approval is the alleged failure of Cheshire East to meet the need for affordable homes in the area.

In a housing review statement from specialist consultants Levvel Ltd, on behalf of Gladman, the claim is made that Cheshire East is "... left with under-delivery of both affordable and market housing relative to both the Council's adopted targets and estimates of the housing requirements."

In its own supporting statement Gladman claims ".. the proposals are in broad compliance with the overall objectives of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), in particular, the golden thread satisfying the presumption in favour of sustainable development."

Protest meeting

The original proposal in March prompted angry protest at a public meeting as well as a village protest petition and a pledge by the Parish Council to oppose the scheme. Talks are under way with neighbouring councils to formulate a 'Neighbourhood Plan' that could block the plan.

Audlem Parish Council chairman Phillip Johnson said today: "Speaking as an individual I can say we are all aware that Audlem does need some development in keeping with the village. However, this proposal is completely out of scale for a community such as ours."

Cheshire East has set a committee date to discuss the plans on August 14th with a target decision date of August 23rd. People are invited to comment on the proposals on the Cheshire East website by July 24th.

The planning application reference number is 13/2224N and you can see details of the application here. Comments are invited in the right-hand panel by clicking the link 'Comment on this application'.

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