Following a public consultation last year, Bellway homes have submitted a planning application for a residential development on land off Cumber Lane and the demolition of three properties.
Bellway plans to build 133 homes on the 5.43ha site which is bounded by properties to the north off Leigh Road and Lindow Fold Drive to the east, Clay Lane and open fields to the west with open fields to the south.
The former green belt site, which was allocated as safeguarded land in Cheshire East's local plan, consists of mainly fields along with four dwellings with associated garages and sheds.
The residential development will include 93 properties for sale of which there be 12 two bed, 21 three bed and 60 with 4+ bedrooms. Additionally there will be 40 affordable homes consisting of 35 three bedroom and 5 with two bedrooms.
Vehicular access into the site will be via a new junction onto Cumber Lane which will require the demolition of three existing properties on Cumber Lane. The scheme includes 286 car parking spaces.
The plans can be viewed on the Cheshire East Planning Portal by searching for planning application 25/1573/FUL.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
However, this only constitutes the initial phase of planned housing in that particular area of south Wilmslow, there's plenty more on the way.
People have already remarked on this forum about the inevitable chaos this will create in the area both during construction as well as afterwards with increased traffic down the already extremely busy Cumber Lane, and they're right.
We need to question the ecology reports for this site. It is peatland. There are local water courses that could well sustain newts etc. There are badgers. The presence of these seems to be being played down.
There are so many documents to read. At RoW we urge residents to take time out to read these and to let us have your thoughts. 5 and 6 bedroom houses are not features of the Cumber Lane/Upcast Lane communities. The need for Wilmslow is for more smaller and more affordable housing. Large properties do not make the most efficient use of land.
It is not just a case of objecting to these houses but of the impact the addition of 500 plus units will have on the local community, both during and after construction, that matters. We need to demand an EIA - Environmental Impact Assessment.
A lot to do before the planning portal closing date, 3rd July 2025.
Once it's gone, folks who voted for this, it's gone.
Please help raise awareness with neighbours and take the time to register objections on the planning portal posted above - and encourage others to do so.
More information can be found at protectlindow.co.uk and the LPS59 residents group on facebook, email to offer any help that you can.
The development is unsuitable on many levels, and the strain it will place on infrastructure and the loss of character which makes this area a special place to live will effect all of south Wilmslow, not just those directly adjacent.
This is just phase one of a much larger destruction of green spaces in our area, benefiting no one who already lives there. It provides nothing to the community or country as a whole - just profit for developers who have been given a green light by central government to build anything and anywhere they like under the guise of solving a housing crisis by selling 6 bed homes.
Please don't stand by while this happens - once it's gone it's gone forever.
Much of the blame must lie with central government who are pushing all councils to build more and more homes (with yearly targets) and to approve planning applications which in the past might well've been rejected.
Councils probably have some control over exactly where houses are can be built but not if they will be.
All over the world we see places destroyed forever through greed, and we,re forced to watch it happen on our doorstep. We can’t allow this.
Is it possible to do some kind of local vote, all residents ?
They want 1.5 million new homes built, so increased Cheshire East’s housing target accordingly. Overnight, that bigger target removed the powers your council has to protect our green fields. It temporarily means Cheshire East has very few reasons to reject these applications. Even if it does refuse them (as we all want to see), then they will go to appeal and the governments department (the Planning Inspectorate) will decide. They will invariably allow them because that's what the government wants to see happen. Plus the Inspector will likely fine Cheshire East for not following the new planning rules!
Labour’s want to build, build, build and the price of farmland around Wilmslow is about £15k per acre. However, with planning permission that land is worth £1m+. This is a gold rush for housing developers and Wilmslow has at least another 4 large-scale estates in the pipeline. All of them are desperately trying to get their plans approved before the boroughs new target numbers are reached and their window of opportunity closes.
So, please be clear. This is not Cheshire East “being greedy” or them ignoring local opinion. They are being forced, very reluctantly into this position.
Best regards
Mark
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
1.5 million new houses corresponds to (even if we give them the full 5 year term) equivalent to over 800 new homes completed per DAY, every day of the year for 5 years. Good luck with that.
Politicians have traditionally thrown nonsense figures around expecting people to simply believe them, but those days are increasingly over.
At RoW we have submitted an audit of brown sites around Wilmslow and of sites that may well be reclassified as being grey. This in the hope, enough developers submit applications for these sites to meet the government's required number of houses without encroaching too far into the Green Belt.
It always used to be the Tories fault. Now it’s Labour. Might aswell allow RoW to run the country.
Mark as our elected voice for Wilmslow, what campaigns are you doing to stop this overdevelopment. Are you voting against any such planning applications? Are you lobbying your Labour colleagues that you run the council with? Are you writing to central government?