A HOUSEBUILDER has asked for a private meeting with Moulton councillors to discuss plans for a new estate in the village.

BovisHomes has taken on the proposal for 148 houses off Barnside Way, which was initially put forward by Richborough Estates.

The plans won outline permission after an appeal in October last year and Bovis has now submitted a reserved matters application to Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC), which focuses on the details of the application.

Speaking at the December Moulton Parish Council meeting Clr Allan Aston, parish council chairman, said: "Bovis has been in touch with us as a parish council and has requested a closed meeting.

"We have agreed that we will meet them to listen, pure and simple.

"We want to hear the time frames that they've got .

"We will then impart as much as we can to the public at our January meeting."

Phil Sanders, parish clerk, said: "Effectively we are going back two years and repeating the same process all over again but for Richborough read Bovis.

"We're in the situation of waiting for the full application to come and with the intelligence gathered from the past two years we will be in a position to do a response to the application when it comes in.

"As we said a couple of years ago, we can't say much, we have to see what's in the application when it comes in.

"I'm sure appropriate comments will be made that reflect the community's comments."

Residents had also been concerned after Richborough Estates asked to alter a planning condition imposed by the inspector after the appeal.

This condition stressed that there should be no piling on the site as part of excavation or development.

This application has now been withdrawn by Bovis.