Pickles gives green light to two major Cheshire housing schemes

The decision follows appeals by developers Harrow Estates and Bridgemere Land against the decision by Cheshire West and Chester Council to refuse outline applications for both schemes. The Council rejected the proposals last year because it said they would have "severe impacts" on the highway networks.

Pickles followed a recommendation by a Planning Inspector to grant permission for the schemes. He said in his decision letter (126-page / 790KB PDF) that he agreed with the Inspector's findings that the Council could only demonstrate a housing land supply of 2.6 years against the five year requirement set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

The SoS agreed that the Council had a shortfall in the provision of affordable housing and said that the 196 affordable homes included in the proposed developments would make a "valuable contribution in this regard".

"The Council's poor housing land supply situation renders the related Local Plan policies out of date," the Inspector said in his report. "The appeal proposals, either in combination or individually, are necessary now to meet immediate housing need and the presumption in favour of sustainable development in the NPPF applies".

Pickles said he agreed with the Inspector's conclusions relating to highway issues. He said that, although the proposals would have an "adverse but limited" impact on parts of the network during the morning peak, the proposals "would not have a severe impact on the transportation network with reference to the highway junctions in Hartford".

The SoS concluded that the benefits of the scheme, including relating to "the Government’s objective to secure a better balance between housing demand and supply and the Government’s objective to secure the creation of high quality, sustainable, mixed and inclusive communities" were not outweighed by the "limited" adverse impacts to the transportation network.