Nantwich campaigners fear a Government Minister rejection of Cheshire East’s 5-year land supply claim, has left the area wide open to housing developers.
Secretary of State Eric Pickles (pictured) dismissed the council’s claim it has a 5-year housing plan, when he upheld two appeals by developers.
Now it is feared this could play into the hands of Muller Property who are pushing for permission to build a controversial 1,100-home “Nantwich South” village in Stapeley, as well as other developers.
In three appeals judged by Mr Pickles, he stated that Cheshire East does not have a 5-year land supply, despite previous council claims they have a 7-year plan.
Pat Cullen, who runs the ProtectStapeley campaign group, branded Cheshire East Council’s claims a “fiasco”.
He said: “Even though Cheshire East won one of the three appeals, the common thread in all three was that the Inspector and Eric Pickles said that Cheshire East does not have a 5-year land supply.
“This is despite Cllr Jones and others telling us that CE has a 7-year land supply.
“The Planning Inspectorate calculated CE’s land supply as between 3.9 and 4.1 years, somewhat different to 7 years!
“It is clear that an appeal can be dismissed even with CE’s 5-year land supply fiasco but there must be other pressing matters.
“As far as Nantwich south is concerned, other matters the Inspector may well take in to account are such things as Kingsley Fields filling the housing requirement, being approved by the town council and part of the Local Plan and possibly the proposed development harming the character and appearance of the countryside.”
But Nantwich Town Cllr Arthur Moran, an Independent, said it the appeal ruling by the Government has exposed Nantwich.
Cllr Moran said: “We backed the Core Strategy that would help fend off any further developments in the south.
“But this now leaves us wide open to developers like Muller. It could all fall apart.
“The Conservatives can’t hide from this. Cheshire East is a Conservative council, Cheshire East has six Conservative MPs, so if they can’t put the case across to a Conservative Government, who can?”
Willaston and Rope Councillor Brian Silvester, UKIP, added: “The political leadership of the council have been going around for several months stating that CE had a 7-year supply of housing land and telling concerned residents they had no need to worry about the proposed huge development on their doorstep.
“This has proved to be incorrect. Those that have been giving those false reassurances should now be examining their position.
“The council now needs to inform residents how they intend to fill the gap in the housing land supply.
“This decision will lead to a review of the Local Plan which is out to consultation yet again. This could lead to yet further delay before the Local Plan is ready to present the the Government Inspector.”
A Cheshire East Council spokeswoman said it would issue a statement on this ruling in due course.
(pic courtesy of Birmingham News Room, Flickr Creative Commons)
I know its in the CEC area but Kingsley fields is not part of Nantwich it is outside of the town border and not even in the Crewe and Nantwich parliamentary constituency as it is part of Eddisbury constituency.
No doubt it will have a major effect on Nantwich in consuming services that the town council will not be able to claim any funds from as part of the council tax.
Interesting that the crescent of houses on Mytton Drive that face Waterlode are in the boundary for Bunbury and Eddisbury according to maps on the CE and links from the Westminster websites
Mr Pickles and our CEC leader should have entered the recent big burger eating competition in NANTWICH, no other contestants would have stood a chance.
As far as looking after the interests of the public of NANTWICH neither have any consideration.
Its about time that they started implementing the law regarding planning permission ( especially relating to the Milne development at Regents Park!!!!!
I believe that non of the 32 criteria attached to the approval of this site have been met by the developer have yet been forthcoming and yet work has commenced.
Repeated complaints to the council have been ignored or blocked.
What do we have a council for????
We used to live in Nantwich
We now exist in the town which
Was beautiful and spiritually uplifting
It’ll all go to pot if ideas don’t start shifting
The powers at be, forget who pays them
Perhaps this is why they create such mayhem
If they were let down in a similar vein
They’d soon turn tables and start to complain
They say they speak for us
They don’t, they ignore us
Hiding won’t help from behind a façade
They’re empowered to help not make it hard
So to Councillors I say, stand up to Eric Pickles
It’s a situation to be tackled, no to be tickled
Get back some respect from those who matter
Not wait for him to explode because he can’t get any fatter
This is just the beginning for us here in this little overcrowded town. Queens Drive & the Bible College have got the nod. Next it’ll be Stapeley, Kingsley Fields and Wistaston to name but a few. Has anyone seen the devastation and destruction of the once beautiful gardens of the old Regents Bible College? It’s like a landscape from Mad Max 2 the movie. I can’t believe the amount of trees that have been chopped down. There are huge piles of rubble all over the place. There is dust and noise all day long. All this is going on next to a children’s nursery and a children’s cafe. Surely this air and noise pollution can’t be good for the little ones. God help those living on or close to the perimeter of the site. Cheshire East Council should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to go on in the middle of a residential area. It is what can only be described as the “EVE OF DESTRUCTION”.
Blame this on local government departments who play it fast and loose with major issues that affect our neighbourhoods and property values, and misuse tax payers money!
So Eric Pickles knows all about Nantwich. Enough to know that we are all obviously in danger of becomming homeless if we don’t have loads of extra houses built on whatever space becomes available.
There is no room here, we are full up and fed up. These new homes don’t provide affordable homes for people to get on the housing ladder. The only affordable homes it seems are for housing associations to rent out. The rest are beyond the reach of a first time buyer.
However, I note that our MP is not speaking out for the town as a collective.
Perhaps the developers should apply for planning permission next door to the decision makers. In my dreams!!
The supermarkets will welcome new housing with glee – more dosh in the tills! I can only assume that money drives these issues and local residents are ignored. Councils will also welcome these developments – more council tax revenue so the sham plans are probably just part of the process, if you can call it that. It just looks like a foul-up by CEC.
This sort of stuff will not stop until the whole country is a mass of houses joined together by motorways and other roads. I love the photo of Fat Eric! Looks as if he’s just polished off a big pie.