Councillors have voted to fight plans for 75 homes in Nantwich at appeal on highways grounds after hearing there’s “a ticking time bomb” caused by unplanned, piecemeal developments, writes Belinda Ryan.
Nightingale Land wants to build the homes on fields off Broad Lane in Stapeley and to bulldoze a bungalow for access.
Cheshire East Council planners had recommended the scheme for approval, but the strategic planning board deferred the application twice in March when councillors asked for a traffic assessment to identify any cumulative impact.
This was because they were aware two more separate applications for about 700 more homes are in the pipeline.
Nightingale Land lodged an appeal for non-determination and yesterday (June 9th) the council’s planners urged councillors to vote they were “minded to approve” the application and not to defend the appeal.
But Stapeley Cllr John Priest, speaking as a visiting member, was adamant the council should stand its ground and defend the appeal.
Cllr Priest said: “It would appear that pressure is being applied through a very deliberate strategy designed to warn this board of a costs award for unreasonable behaviour.
“It can never be unreasonable for this board to require that a developer provides accurate, real-world data before adding 75 new homes onto a local highways network that Nantwich and Stapeley residents know is already operating at its absolute limit.”
Stapeley resident Pat Cullen told the meeting: “The Nightingale Land traffic statement only assessed the capacity of one road junction, and that was access to the site.”
He said the Muller transport assessment – for a 411-home development which has yet to be determined – assessed other junctions.
Mr Cullen referred to three within half a mile of the Broad Lane site.
He said of those three junctions, Muller’s data showed one is currently operating at 99% capacity. Anything above 90% is considered as over-capacity.
The others are projected to hit 90.7% and 92.3% within four years.
“There’s a ticking time bomb here in Nantwich and it’s brought about by unplanned, piecemeal developments,” said Mr Cullen.
“You can’t be pressured into approving a scheme where the baseline data is proven to be obsolete, and the network is already at capacity.”
The council’s planning officers said the decision had to be made on the 75-home application, not any future schemes.
Cllr Janet Clowes (Wybunbury) said: “I’ve got all sorts of issues around highways safety on that little stretch of road, but our highways experts tell us that the modelling, the engineering, around this entrance is safe.”
Crewe councillor Ben Wye said he teaches children how to cycle on main roads across Crewe and Nantwich and “Broad Lane is the only road where we do not allow them to ride on the road because of our own risk assessments, everywhere else we can”.
Cllr Anthony Harrison said he was minded to refuse the application and referred to policies in the national planning policy framework relating to the severe impact on the road network, taking into account all reasonable future scenarios.
Acting chair Garnet Marshall said he was minded to approve it, saying the 75 homes proposed “aren’t going to make much of a difference to the way things are at the moment”.
It was pointed out Cllr Harrison had already moved refusal and this was then seconded by Cllr Rob Moreton.
Six councillors voted in favour of being “minded to refuse” the application on the grounds of severe highways impact, two voted against and one abstained.
The council’s officers will now defend the appeal by sending written representations to the planning inspector, who will make the final decision.
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