A proposal to build homes on a village field in Wybunbury which conflicts with the local plan and would “change the rural character of the site” has been recommended for approval, writes Belinda Ryan.
Martin and Simon Poole have applied for “permission in principle” to build up to six homes on land off Bridge Street.
But despite conflicting the local plan, officers warned that Cheshire East is un “unable to demonstrate a five-year supply of housing”.
A report from Cheshire East’s planning officer to next week’s meeting of the southern planning committee, says the proposal would conflict with local plan and neighbourhood plan policies, adding: “This would also result in a change to the rural character of the site and a small loss of agricultural land.”
It continues: “The proposal is considered to be sustainably located, but despite this the proposal conflicts with the development plan as a whole.”
The application has been referred to the committee by Wybunbury Ward councillor Janet Clowes (Con).
She has listed several reasons why the application should be refused, including the site is outside the Wybunbury settlement boundary, next to the conservation area and is in clear view of significant listed buildings at the edge of the village.
She says the development would have an impact on Wybunbury Moss and the site is not an identified gap between linear development and so does not qualify as “in-fill” development.
Wybunbury Parish Council has also objected to the proposal citing several reasons, as have 16 households.
The 0.16 hectare site is part of a field, east of Bridge Street in the open countryside.
The applicants are applying for ‘permission in principle’ (PIP) – a two-stage mechanism for obtaining planning approval for housing development.
The first stage, which is being applied for now, is to establish whether the site is suitable in principle.
The planning officer’s report says: “The scope of permission in principle is limited to the location, land use, amount of development.”
If PIP is granted, the site must receive a grant of technical details consent before development can proceed.
The report recommends approval for PIP saying: “The adverse impacts of the proposal would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits…
“The proposed development would benefit from the presumption in favour of sustainable development which weighs heavily in support of the proposed development.”
Cheshire East Council’s southern planning committee meeting takes place on Wednesday, July 30, at 10.30am.
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