Second time lucky for developer as 115 homes approved

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee convened this week to discuss proposals for 115 ‘affordable’ properties on land at Niddries Lane in Moulton.

A decision was postponed at February’s meeting after some members asked officers to try and come up with a more ‘robust’ reason to knock it back.

Speaking at the meeting, Emma Winter, the planning agent representing applicant MCI Developments Ltd, told members it would be operated by housing association Clarion Housing Group and said it would see investment in the local area.

Objections had been raised by local ward councillor Dan Marr and the parish council, and of 200 representations made by the public – two thirds were also objections.

Cllr Marr – a long-standing opponent of the scheme – told the meeting: “This plan remains totally unsuitable for Moulton.

“It continues to detrimentally impact our road network and our highway safety, it will not provide infrastructure that would make a development of this size sustainable.”

There was extensive ‘back and forth’ between the council’s planning experts and members of the committee.

Officers told the meeting that under new government regulations the council had to grant permission for more than 2,000 homes per year, while in previous years it had approved ‘around 500’.

They also said refusing a development on the grounds of highways in the current context would not be successful adding that planning was ‘not a popularity contest’.

Speaking on social media following the decision, Cllr Marr added: “I’m deeply disappointed.  It took two meetings and three-and-a-half hours of debate to try and get this through. That tells you how problematic designs like this are.”