Cheshire East planners have given the go-ahead for a 104-home affordable scheme in Crewe, writes Belinda Ryan.
The development, a mix of one, two, three and four-bed homes, including apartments, maisonettes, semi-detached and terraced dwellings, will be built by Breck Homes on land east of Broughton Road and north of Bidvale Way.
The land is part of a larger site allocated for residential development in the local plan.
Permission has already been granted for 129 homes on the northern part of the site.
The developer’s agent, Paul Williams, told the council’s strategic planning board the scheme “will make efficient use of a greenfield site, there will be a generous amount of open space across the allocation and highways officers agree that traffic generation will remain acceptable”.
“A key benefit is the provision of 100 per cent affordable housing,” said Mr Williams.
“The importance of this is underlined by the Cheshire Homes waiting list of 2,322 households for Crewe alone.
“Breck Homes hopes to commence development in January 2023 and to complete the scheme within two years.”
Cllr Suzie Akers Smith (Ind) asked if a 20mph speed limit could be imposed on the development “because it’s going to be full of families”.
But highways officers said they did not believe it was appropriate for this scheme because it had been designed in such a way as to keep speed low.
Cllr David Edwardes (Ind) supported Cllr Akers Smith.
“Just by saying the roads constrain the speed isn’t sufficient to me and I think we should really be going for a 20mph speed limit,” he said.
Planning boss David Malcolm said the council’s speed strategy, adopted a few weeks ago, stated where it was “appropriate” and in this case highways officers didn’t believe it to be the case.
“We’re not ignoring the strategy, we’re just looking to try to find what is appropriate,” said Mr Malcolm.
“My concern is that if we apply it through this board on a blanket basis, somebody will take an issue with it and it then might undermine the strategy that some members have spent a lot of time getting through the process to adopt.”
Crewe Cllr Steve Hogben (Lab) proposed the application be approved.
“I welcome the fact that it’s got 100% affordable and we do need that in the towns in the borough, not least in Crewe,” he said.
Cllr Steve Edgar (Con) seconded the proposal to approve and asked that a compound should be conditioned for contractors as part of construction management plan to stop them parking on the roads.
The application was approved, with conditions, with nine councillors voting in favour and one abstaining.
The 20mph speed limit was not conditioned.
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