Homes and traffic lights plan shelved
ADECISION over controversial plans to build hundreds of new homes in a pollution hotspot has been delayed.
Developers Redrow and Jones Homes want to install traffic lights at Broken Cross roundabout as part of a wider application to build 232 homes on land off Chelford Road.
However, the plans were pulled by Cheshire East Council hours before the planning meeting on Wednesday, March 27, where they were due to be discussed to allow for proposals for ‘pedestrian facilities’ to be further investigated by planning officers.
A decision over a separate application to build 100 homes near the site by Robinson Brewery has also been delayed.
The proposals for the Redrow development had received heavy criticism over the traffic light plan for the roundabout.
Residents and councillors also said the new developments would add to an already high level of pollution. In December 2016, Broken Cross became an ‘air quality management area’ (AQMA) because of the level of nitrogen dioxide in the air.
A spokesperson for Henbury Parish Council said: “Henbury Parish Council and The Henbury Society welcome the decision by Cheshire East Council to withdraw the proposal from Jones Homes/Redrow & Robinson’s Brewery for applications to build around 450 houses on land recently removed from green belt, either side of Chelford Road. A team from the Parish Council were told of this news by David Malcolm, head of planning CEC, moments prior to start of the Strategic Planning Committee on Wednesday.”
Councillor Nick Man- nion has campaigned against the developments and says this is a ‘small but significant victory’.
He said: “We were all there suited and booted, ready to put our point across and the chairman announced that it was going to be deferred. That’s all we were told, we haven’t been told why or who has made that decision.”
He added: “We are classing it as a small but signifi- cant victory. But for whatever reason they have pulled it, we just need them to come back with a better proposal.”
The Express has contacted Cheshire East Council for a comment but has not yet received a response. Redrow and Jones Homes have been contacted for a response.
It is not yet known or when the plans will be ruled over.