Councillors go against officer recommendation to reject plans for more homes at former abattoir

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Planning permission to demolish a former commercial building at Moor Lane and construct two new dwellings have been refused.

Members of the Northern Planning Committee went against the planning officer's recommendation to approve plans for two detached 4 bedroom houses with six parking spaces at Yew Tree Farm, having deferred the application from last month's meeting "for further consideration regarding the impact of the proposed height of the buildings on the openness of the green belt".

Following the deferral of the application from the last Committee meeting, the applicant submitted revised plans which reduced the height of the proposed dwellings. House 1 has been reduced from 7.6m to 7.2m whilst house 2 has been reduced from 7.4m to 7.2m.

However, the Northern Planning Committee refused to grant planning permission for the development that "As a result of the increased height of the buildings, the proposed redevelopment of the site will have a greater impact on the openness of the Green Belt than the existing development and as such is inappropriate development in the Green Belt."

Cllr Iain Macfarlane, pointed out that the new plans showed only a minimal decrease in height for these buildings "averaging 0.3 metres or the length of an old school ruler".

The ensuing vote was tied at 5:5 and Cllr Craig Browne, as chair of the Northern Planning Committee, made his casting vote against the proposal.

Cllr Iain Macfarlane added "There was then further debate on the merits of looking at bungalows as an alternative to these large houses before a further vote was proposed which came in at 7:4 to reject the original application to build these 2-storey houses on this site."
The site lies within the North Cheshire Green Belt and contains a building which had previously been used in association with the abattoir. This building had planning permission granted in 2018 for conversion to stables (reference 17/5697M).

In April 2018 planning permission was also granted (reference 17/5697M) for the change of use of agricultural land and building associated with the existing abattoir to equestrian use and associated works, Then in October 2018 planning permission was granted (reference 17/6269M) for the erection of 14 dwellings with associated access and infrastructure.

The planning officer recommended the application for approval by the Northern Planning Committee at their meeting on Wednesday, 4th December having concluded that "the proposed development is not considered to have a greater impact on the openness of the Green Belt than the existing development. The proposal is therefore not considered to be inappropriate development in the Green Belt."

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

John Currie
Saturday 7th December 2019 at 1:50 pm
An ambiguous headline, but at least it got me to read the article.
Pete Taylor
Monday 9th December 2019 at 12:16 am
This is the proposed development immediately behind former CEC Cllr (and currently WTC Cllr) Barton's house?
He voted (with other now-ousted Tories) to remove Green Belt protection from lands around Wilmslow and Alderley in order to force through the CEC Local Plan at any cost.

Well, it seems like a splendid brown-field development to me.
Mark Goldsmith
Monday 9th December 2019 at 10:22 am
@Pete Taylor

This brownfield strip closes off and almost entraps a larger pocket of green belt land. The proposal of two large houses would then remove any remaining green belt view from this encircled pocket, making it much easier to build on in the future.

So we didn't object to building on this brownfield land, just the type of property being proposed. We successfully argued that it was far better suited to bungalows to replace the low level barn there and so keep the greenbelt views.

Bungalows would provide a much needed type of housing for Wilmslow too as 87% of our new build houses are 4 or 5 bed detached executive ones. We therefore do not need another two of them as the proposal wanted but do need more bungalows.

We are therefore pleased the planning committee agreed with us (just) and hope to see a new plan for low level housing there instead.

Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow