Home extensions in Cheshire may soon be all the rage thanks to a new development proposal. An application for the building of 269 new homes in Sandbach, Cheshire has been given the green light after an appeal by developers against the decision originally made by Cheshire East Council.
Eric Pickles, Communications Secretary, gave the application the thumbs up, saying that despite the development expected to cause some disturbance to protection policies around the countryside, there are also positives in the move – mainly that it would help to deal with the shortfall in land supply for council housing, as well as affordable homes.
Campaign to Protect Rural England senior planning campaigner, Paul Miner, said that the cases seem to conflict with promises made by the Government to enable local communities to have the final say in what can be built in the area.
Miner said:
“When the Government introduced its planning reforms last year it promised that the local plan would be the keystone of the planning system, and that the intrinsic value and beauty of the countryside would be recognised.”
“Instead, we are seeing that applications for new housing are being approved regardless of their impact on local areas.”
The move comes after numbers showed that over 50% of local authorities fail to plan locally in allowing communities to clearly set out where they will allow building to take place, which means that they are not in a position to stop developers building wherever they choose.
