RESIDENTS at a major new housing estate could soon enjoy a safer walk to their nearest schools and railway station.

At a meeting on Wednesday, Cheshire East Council’s strategic planning board agreed to add 100 houses and a 66-bed care home to the 371 properties at Taylor Wimpey’s Albion Lock development, in Moston.

But councillors were warned that a stretch of footpath from the site, in Booth Lane, towards Mill Lane is not fit for purpose – while the path has been left in the dark after street lights were taken out three years ago.

Cllr David Nixon, from Moston Parish Council, told the board that Albion Lock residents had raised ‘consistent complaints’ over the past year about the unsatisfactory state of the footpath and a lack of street lighting.

He said: “We’ve addressed these complaints with CEC highways without any action being taken.

“The developers have erected lights at the front of the estate, but nevertheless that stretch of path is in total darkness.

“Residents instead of walking to and from Sandbach station and Elworth school, especially in the dark winter mornings, are now resorting to the car – so much for the carbon reduction scheme.

“This application extols the virtues of cycling and walking. Make no mistake, it is far from easy.”

The footpath leads Moston residents to their nearest two primary schools, in Elworth, and Sandbach train station.

Cllr Gill Merry, chairman of the strategic planning board, said her ‘only concern’ about the redevelopment scheme was the footpath.

She added: “This is an out of town location. It’s still a considerable walk into Elworth from there.”

But Neil Jones, principal development engineer at CEC, suggested the footpath could be upgraded.

He said: “Given that there is more residential on the site now, it is more likely that people are going to want to make trips by foot into Sandbach, so an upgrade to the path will be supported by highways.

“It’s just a matter of the cost to do that, and maybe it’s a sum of circa £50,000 to do that.”

The committee delegated power to CEC’s head of planning regulation to find a solution for the footpath after approving Bluefield Sandbach’s plans for the site.