Have your say on plans for retirement apartments on land occupied by Wilmslow Police Station

McCarthy Stone has recently acquired an interest in land currently occupied by Wilmslow Police Station and are in the early stages of working up proposals for the site's redevelopment.

Cheshire Constabulary are seeking to construct a replacement police facility at the site which will make a portion of the land available for additional development.

McCarthy Stone are proposing to 55 retirement apartments along with communal facilities including a residents' lounge, guest suite, internal refuse store, and mobility scooter storage with charging points.

The scheme includes landscaped gardens to the west of the site and around 43 car parking spaces for homeowners, staff and visitors to the south of the site. Further to the south of the site will be the new police facility.

Following a public consultation plans to redevelop Wilmslow Police Station - to create a new, fit for purpose zero carbon station at the site with a view to become fully operational in around Summer 2023 - were approved in November 2021.

Cheshire Constabulary said that the new station will not only help save tens of thousands of pounds in both utilities and maintenance costs but will also allow them to sell the remainder of the unused land and reinvest any money back into local policing to help make Cheshire a safer place to work and visit.

For further information about the proposals and to complete the online consultation form visit https://mccarthystoneconsultation.co.uk/wilmslow.

Images - CGI showing the view from site entrance off Beech Lane and CGI showing the view from Little Lindow.

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Comments

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

Julian Barlow
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 2:43 pm
Now we know what the 'carbon zero" police station was really about. Publicly owned assets sold, services compromised, no benefit for the people forced to finance the clown show.
Simon Atkins
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 3:13 pm
What Wilmslow really needs is more retirement apartments....
Vic Barlow
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 3:40 pm
Any chance we can see the plans for the new carbon free police station?
Seems rather odd to be holding a public consultation on this while revealing nothing about the proposed police station which after all is of more interest to the people of Wilmslow than 55 new apartments.
Stuart Redgard
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 5:52 pm
I am one of the circa 30 volunteers who developed the Wilmslow Neighbourhood plan. I was part of the Town Core Group that identified this plot of land as a "Ke Site" for development. We wrote a specific policy KS2. which outlined how we hoped this site would be developed if the site came up for redevelopment.

I am disgusted that "the developer" has completely ignored this document and the specific requirement set out for this site which was:

"Provision of a high-density residential development comprising a mix of starter homes, affordable housing and homes appropriate for those wishing to downsize".

I will do everything possible to prevent this proposal from gaining planning permission.

I have let them know of my opinion by completing the consultation feedback.

The "prospectus" put together for the sale of the land. specifically showed the new police station being accessed directly from Hawthorn Street. This proposal does not show that. A public facility such as a police station should never be only accessible through private residential development.
Terry Roeves
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 5:55 pm
So no chance of housing for young people then? Doesn’t anyone care, or is it just about the money? A town for old people …….
Paul Millett
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 6:16 pm
What is Wilmslow doing to entice young people and families to the village? Plans for family units behind the Co-op were recently denied yet this will probably get the go ahead. Wilmlsow will be an old folks centre before long.
Jon Williams
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 8:17 pm
Looks like housing for Illegal immigration
Rick Andrews
Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 9:56 pm
I wonder how McCarthy Stone acquired its interest in the site? How was this company selected? What was the process? Are any other developers considered.? Was the site offered as a competitive opportunity?

As residents and council tax payers we have a vested interest in knowing how our assets are being handled. Let’s hope the media will shed some light. And, by the way, did this influence the resiting of the new playground area?
Anita Willoughby
Thursday 8th December 2022 at 8:30 am
55 apartments, 43 carparking spaces.
AND a replacement police station? I have an image of emergency vehicle stuck behind a mobility scooter.
John Featherstone
Thursday 8th December 2022 at 11:48 am
have your say??????its a joke read the answers above all are correct why bother money, money, money, sing along with Abba and have another drink,
Fred Rayers
Thursday 8th December 2022 at 12:28 pm
Completely unsympathetic design positioned right next to and and dwarfing Little Lindow. I shall certainly be objecting.
Simon Worthington
Thursday 8th December 2022 at 3:37 pm
Happy to be corrected.
Land purchased by Macclesfield Town Council and use by plod permitted. Local taxpayers funds!
Plod for unfathomable reasons don't use it. Boot them out and let them find their own piece of land and build a station. They rinse enough from us annually.
Let the local taxpayers have a say in what they require on the land.
Perfect place for a decent size hotel (as the old council wanted on Gibbo's yard before the mob got involved) AND job provider.
McCarthy Stone, behind the Chapelwood site (eyesore) on previously council owned (ours) land which should have been an expanded medical facility for the whole area. Got cold feet when they realised that a north facing apartment with balcony was not a selling point. Flogged it to another load of London "types" (careful of the censor) who have it rammed right up their...... and can't even rent them. Epicaricacy abounds!!!
More old folk housing??? Ramps everywhere soon. NOT required.
Brian Donohue
Saturday 10th December 2022 at 7:27 am
Stuart Regard has explained why this proposal should be rejected. Wilmslow residents approved its Neighbourhood Plan and it was known back in 2017 that the site would be sold hence the designation as a Key Site and a specification that it should be used for appropriate town centre (starter) homes.
Objectors should quote the Neighbourhood Plan. See WTC website for details.
John Harries
Wednesday 14th December 2022 at 5:39 pm
All of us should have fought tooth and nail to retain a proper police presence for the area; a semi-urban population of circa 70K should easily justify a more localised 24 hour service, god knows the reported crime in the area deserves something more appropriate than the nearest centre in Macclesfield which is a notional 12 miles distant, say by normal roads 25 minutes away.
I've commented on here via numerous feature topics that we are not only losing a vital service concerning our safety/security but surrendering traditionally Wilmslow civic ground/property to more centralised fund raising (via private enterprise) which for certain doesn't in any real manner benefit this community. Now you are all bleating about how the eventual benefactors of this misuse aren't doing what you/any of us actually want - tough! The whole episode has been a disgrace and the quoted 'replacement police station' which we are so so lucky to appreciate will also be carbon neutral has been 'leaked' to us (like Japanese water torture) so we're conditioned to settle for something not much more than a dedicated 'phone line (good luck with that if you're in trouble...) stuck on the wall of......another (MaCarthy Stone) private retirement development sited at one of the 'gateway points' to the town (another euphemism dreamt up by some remote urban development consultants).
Lost for words but somehow not surprised....