AT MERCY OF DEVELOPERS
I WRITE in response to Lesley Smetham’s letter regarding the South Macclesfield Development Area in last week’s Express.
I remember Coun Smetham offering her Masters research to various officers and developers to raise awareness of the risks to the area.
Unfortunately few if any, at least those making the decisions, took notice and ignored not just her research but the concerns of many others. However, any concerns were overridden by the administration at the time and ambitious, but worrying, proposals and promises made.
The plan for a link road across the railway line was being questioned and there was increasing uncertainty about where the road would go.
A much less grandiose scheme that was proposed to the strategic planning board in 2017.
As councillor for Macclesfield South ward, I attended the meeting to object to the proposal on the grounds of the lack of affordable housing and the proposed link road which was planned to go through a residential area.
Representatives from Cheshire Wildlife Trust objected and spoke of the risks to wildlife, particularly the willow tit.
So far Coun Smetham is correct in her account of the strategic planning board so why did she and her colleagues vote unanimously to approve the application?
We could argue that we didn’t understand the environmental importance and the value of peat then, but we knew of the threat to wildlife.
Coun Smetham and colleagues know the planning system where it seems the developer has all the advantages over local authority.
This application should never have been approved in 2017 for the reasons outlined above and, like Coun
Smetham, I hope that it will not proceed.
But we are at the mercy of the developers who were given permission by Coun Smetham and her Conservative colleagues and that will be difficult and very costly.
As an aside, in 2001, when there were proposals to develop the South Macclesfield Area, Labour councillors at the time campaigned strongly against the development.
Councillor Laura Jeuda Macclesfield South ward