‘FAMILY SELLING UP AS THEY’LL BE ENORMOUSLY OVERLOOKED’

Plans for new apartments get go-ahead

A FAMILY are selling their home of 50 years – in a row over new apartments.

Applicant David Holland says there is a desperate need for one-bed flats in Congleton and has now got permission to build a block of six on land off Woolston Avenue.

But ward councillor Rob Moreton says the development will result in a severe loss of privacy for residents living on Coronation Road who would be ‘enormously overlooked’.

He said: “So much so, one family that has lived there for more than 50 years feel the need to sell their home.

“There are also families with children who have said they wouldn’t be able to open their upstairs curtains for fear of being overlooked if this development goes ahead.”

Resident Diana Eton told Cheshire East Council’s planning committee that 40 objections had been submitted online and even more via a petition.

“From what I’ve read, all these have meant nothing to the planning officer. We residents don’t count, the effect it’s going to have on our lives doesn’t count,” she said. “Fourteen windows, every one of them being able to look directly into our gardens but, more importantly, directly into our homes, children’s bedrooms. This is not acceptable.”

Planning officer Daniel Evans told the committee the separation distances between the new development and the existing houses were acceptable at 35m when the requirement in the Congleton local plan was 21.3m and 21m in the Cheshire East design guide.

When Congleton councillor Suzie Akers Smith (Ind) said she was concerned that residents’ comments had not had any influence at all, Mr Evans said: “In terms of the influence residents have had, we’ve gone through consultation twice with this application. It was originally eight units and it’s now been reduced to six, the height has been reduced and so has the design.”

Councillor Anthony Critchley (Crewe Central, Lab) said the scheme did seem to tick every box for planning requirements and moved the officer’s recommendation that it be approved.

This was seconded by Councillor Steve Edgar (Haslington, Con) who said he wished he had that much separation between his house and the new houses being built at the bottom of his garden. The application was approved with all councillors, except one, voting in favour. Councillor Akers Smith abstained.