Latest on deferred 75-home development as applicant takes legal advice
The plans are recommended for approval
The site of the proposed 75-home application off Broad Lane at Nantwich (From CEC planning meeting)
The applicant behind a 75-home scheme deferred for a cumulative transport survey amid safety concerns has taken legal advice and refused to provide any further highways assessments saying it is not justified or necessary. Cheshire East planners had recommended councillors approve the outline application from Nightingale Land for up to 75 homes off Broad Lane at Nantwich, which also includes bulldozing a bungalow to create an access for the site.
But at a meeting of the strategic planning board (SPB) earlier this month, several councillors raised concerns about the ability of the road to cope with extra traffic – especially knowing applications for a possible 700 more homes were in the pipeline. The application was deferred for a cumulative transport assessment to be undertaken to take account of all known applications in the locality and assess the impact on the highway network.
That deferral by councillors was against the advice of the council’s planning and highways officers. Now the proposal is back on the agenda for next week’s SPB meeting – without the requested transport assessment – and again recommended for approval.
The planning officer’s report states: “Following the deferral of the application, the applicant has advised that they do not intend to submit any further transport assessment as they do not consider this to be justified or necessary given the limited scale of the proposal and that any cumulative impact would need to be assessed by the larger applications currently being considered by the council.”
It adds: “The applicants therefore request that the matter of deferral is reviewed.” The planning officer says that, as noted in the applicant’s legal opinion, the adjacent sites do not benefit from a planning approval and because they are at an early stage in the process, there is no reasonable degree of certainty that they will proceed within the next few years, so there is no justification for a transport assessment to consider cumulative impacts.
He adds: “Therefore, given the limited scale of this proposal, it is not considered justified to seek a transport assessment for this application for up to 75 dwellings, which has been deemed to have no severe highway impacts. The recommendation for approval therefore remains.”
The strategic planning board meeting takes place at 10.30am on Wednesday, March 25, at Macclesfield Town Hall.