Council returned £2,000 to developers

Cheshire East Council returned a £2,000 cheque to Hockenhull Properties Ltd after allegedly failing to consult on plans to build up to 36 homes in Audlem.

In their submission for planning consent for land off Mill Lane, developers claim they handed over a £2,000 fee for pre-application consultations with Cheshire East.

But the fee was returned five months later, with an apology, after developers failed to get any further response from the council's planning department.

A Design Statement by Goodwin Planning Services, on behalf of Hockenhull Properties Ltd, says: "We would stress at the outset that the applicants set out to engage in pre-application consultation discussions with the Local Planning Authority."

A pre-application consultation request was submitted to Cheshire East 6th September 2012 and a meeting held on October 11th.

When the £2,000 fee was paid developers were promised a written council response within 10 days.

But Goodwin claims that, despite numerous requests, a written response was never received and developers eventually asked for the return of their fee on February 13th this year.

The statement adds: "The applicants received a letter of apology from Cheshire East Council dated 26th February 2013 and received a refund of their pre-application cheque."

Goodwin insist that lack of any detailed account of pre-application discussions with council officers "is not a reflection of a lack of any attempt by the applicants to engage with the Council."

They claim that feedback from meeting that did take place was "generally positive in relation to the acceptability of development in and around Audlem".

Cheshire East has been asked by AudlemOnline to comment but no reply has yet been received.

Hockenhull Properties Ltd wants outline consent to build up to 36 new homes on 4.8 hectares of open fields off Mill Lane with a substantial amount of public open space and with road access off Heathfield Drive

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