Cheshire East Council says matters relating to contaminated land have “almost been resolved” on a 263-home estate which is being lived in but doesn’t have planning permission, writes Belinda Ryan.
The recently built Coppenhall Place, on the site of the former Crewe Works off West Street, was granted planning permission in 2018.
That permission was lost last year because developer Countryside Partnerships failed to deal with a condition relating to contaminated land.
At the end of March, Cheshire East’s strategic planning board deferred the application from Countryside to regularise the development.
It was deferred for a peer review regarding the contaminated land issue and for an open book viability financial assessment to see whether it was appropriate to ask the developer for further contributions.
This means the estate still has no planning permission, although most of the homes are occupied.
The council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) in the summer the matter would be considered at the September meeting of the strategic planning board, but it wasn’t.
And it isn’t on the agenda for tomorrow’s (October 25) meeting.
The LDRS asked Cheshire East when the Crewe residents could expect this matter to be dealt with.
Cllr Mick Warren, chair of the council’s environment and communities committee, said: “Council officers have been continuing to work pro-actively with the developer, Countryside Properties, to resolve the final outstanding matters relating to this planning application.
“Matters relating to contaminated land have now almost been resolved.
“However, matters relating to the viability assessment are still ongoing, and it has not been possible to bring the application back to the strategic planning board this month.
“We have been in communication with residents to explain where this matter is currently up to, and we continue to seek to bring the application back to strategic planning board at the earliest opportunity.”
(Pic by Google Maps)
Exactly ….
Yes, shocking!! As a condition of the original planning application and / or permission the council should have expected the contaminated land remediation report prior to any building. How have they overlooked this??? And then failed to redress the issue for four years before retracting permission???? Also, pre purchase legal and environmental surveys should have identified this issue and brought it to the attention of prospective buyers….which again, should have been a prompt to the Council to kick the developer into action. All round professional incompetence.
What a mess? How did this happen? Did the council wear blindfolds when this estate was being built? They certainly did when trees were felled recently and one fell accross West St, nothing was said.