The development of a garden village at Handforth has moved a step closer.
The garden village will include 1,500 new homes, up to 12 hectares (30 acres) of employment land, a new local centre, a new school and extensive open space.
The council is the lead developer for the scheme and the delivery strategy and programme for the project were approved by cabinet in September 2018. Around 70 per cent of the land allocated for the garden village is owned by the council, while the remaining 30 per cent is owned by third parties.
To bring forward the site's development, the council needs to ensure there are sufficient rights of access and for delivery of utility services across the council land and that third-party rights, such as rights of access, do not impede development.
Today, Cheshire East Council's cabinet gave the green light for its officers to seek to legally resolve any outstanding legal rights issues, so the scheme can proceed unhindered.
Councillor Nick Mannion, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for environment and regeneration, said: "This is an exciting scheme to deliver much-needed housing and jobs in the north of the borough – and we need to be able to move forwards without hindrance due to any outstanding rights issues.
"Most of the beneficiaries of the existing rights are in dialogue with the council regarding the delivery of the garden village scheme. A key element of the council's delivery strategy is to ensure that all parcels of development land have the necessary rights for access and utilities/services.
"As such, where the exercise of an existing right conflicts with the development proposals for the garden village, the council is committed to either modifying that right or to replacing it with a new alternative right. Where appropriate, compensation will be paid for any loss of rights – but we expect this to be only a small cost to the council."
The garden village scheme would also create more than 300 construction jobs and 470 supply chain jobs during the delivery phase. It is estimated that the scheme will also deliver a further 600 jobs directly and 150 supply chain jobs due to the new commercial and community uses created and the increased expenditure in the local area.
Councillor Craig Browne, deputy leader of the council with responsibility for transport and strategic infrastructure, said: "I am determined that the garden village will have cycling and walking routes and that the final scheme will also be supported by a park-and-ride facility as well as a new bus route providing connectivity with Handforth railway station and the nearby town of Wilmslow.
"Our world-leading bioscience hub at Alderley Park will create significant employment and economic growth opportunities over the next few years and I am keen to make sure that as many of those opportunities as possible are taken up by people living within Cheshire East. For this reason, multi-modal connectivity between the proposed development site and the bioscience hub will be essential."
The garden village is a site of around 120 hectares (300 acres) allocated as a strategic site in the council's adopted Local Plan Strategy with a submitted planning application to be considered later in the year.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
This is just one more step on the road to Handforth being absorbed into the burgeoning Greater Manchester Conurbation. Recent events have illustrated starkly that increasing population density has very little going for it.
One glimmer of hope in all this is the Deputy Leader's aim of expanding multi-modal connectivity in the Handforth-Wilmslow-Alderley Edge corridor. I think this is the last opportunity to provide access to our town centres without increasing car pollution and congestion.
The park and ride concept and reliance on effective public transport alternatives combined with pedestrian and cycle way initiatives has the chance to enhance the quality of our town centres and make them more attractive to visitors and residents alike.
Efforts should be made to concentrate car parking in edge-of-centre and out-of-centre locations rather than attracting cars to the town centres by providing more in-centre car parks. The lands currently designated for car parks should be reserved to extend and improve the public realm for all residents.
Pretending that a couple of cycle paths are suitable compensation for the destruction of hundreds of acres of open land is pure folly. CEC are already unable to effectively deal with a number of pressing issues affecting the town, adding 1000's more homes will not provide a remedy.
The entire project contradicts the aims of CEC's current leader who called for local action to help tackle "the emergency of climate change".
Surely, if nothing else can be done by our independent party to stop this development, then at the very least the 30 acres of employment land should be reconsidered.
I make this comment following the COVID19 crisis as I believe many employers will now make a decision to base many of its employees as homeworkers. This will free up many existing office blocks.
Although, preferably, I sincerely hope that something can be done by the independent councillors to stop the whole development on this “green belt” land!
Instead we have brick boxes making no doubt a few interested parties very wealthy.
The A34 bypass is heading for car park status and might as well be a 'park and ride' for Wilmslow the average speed cars will be doing when all these schemes are finished.
There needs to be a simple survey in Cheshire East to gather information on residents.
It wouldn't be difficult.
Every resident should declare their postcode and that of where they work.
Every commercial premise in the area should declare the postcode of the business and that of all of the employees.
Then some sort of evaluation should be possible to create a picture of who lives where and what sort of travel demands they will make on the roads round here.
In fact, all independent members present including RoW’s Cllr Toni Fox and Alderley’s Cllr Craig Browne did not support the proposal and, as it was apparent that the vote looked set to be lost, chose to “not vote” in protest.
The Handforth Growth Village was conceived by the previous administration and the site was allocated for development as part of the Local Plan in 2017. RoW and the Independents recognise that local residents in general did not support it.
In light of the potentially wide ranging impacts of Covid and the significant changes to the planning system announced last week by Government, it is possibly even less worthy of support now than it was in 2017. The Independent members at the cabinet meeting tried to argue that point but, unfortunately, their position was not supported by other members of the cabinet.
Cheers
Dave
Unfortunately, a lot of new developments by the big name builders aren't sympathetic to their surroundings and it gives new developments a bad name. I hope this goes ahead and is well planned and developed. There's an opportunity for Cheshire East to build low energy housing and should look at places like Goldsmith Street in Norwich which won a RIBA prize. This will fit in with their carbon neutral plan.
I can see that residents feel this is being imposed on them but the conservative government committed to building 300,000 homes a year and are below that target. People can’t vote them in and expect these houses to be built somewhere else.
If independent councillors aren't supporting this then where will the affordable housing be built ?
Where else should they built ? well I would agree with the Prime Minister in his thoughts that office blocks and shops that will now rapidly become vacant should be converted into residential use. Planning is to be quickly changed, he said, to enable this. What's not to like ?