Campaigners have been handed a boost after controversial plans to build 200 homes on fields behind a Stockport firm’s HQ got the thumbs down from councillors. MAN Energy Solutions’ proposals for a new residential development at Mirrlees Fields, in Hazel Grove, failed to win the backing of Stepping Hill area committee at a meeting on Tuesday night.
It is a blow to the manufacturing giant ahead of the plans going to the council’s planning panel for the final decision later this month.The scheme includes a range of house types - from two-bed apartments to large family houses - with half of all properties being ‘affordable’.
Around a sixth of the 67 acre site would be sacrificed for new housing, with the remainder to be transferred to the Land Trust to manage ‘into perpetuity’ as ‘public open space’ in the form of a 'nature reserve'. The apparent trade off has not found favour with local residents and campaigners, though - with nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition against the plans.
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Objectors say the proposed development site - known as ‘The Big Field’ - is ‘vital’ to the communities of Hazel Grove, Woodsmoor and Stepping Hill and Great Moor. Dominic Wells, of Protect Mirrlees Fields, spoke against the application at the town hall meeting, telling councillors the fields were invaluable to residents.
“It was a godsend during the pandemic,” he said. "A place where we could go, get out of the house, see something green for an hour and see, at a distance, our neighbours and our friends.
“It’s where I go running, it’s where my daughter takes her dog for a walk. It’s a local green space we have access to and have for thirty years.”
However, Jon Suckley - speaking on behalf of MAN Energy - told councillors the development would bring ‘significant benefits’ to the area. He explained that MAN could no longer pay for the maintenance of land which it had ‘no use’ for.
“As part of its development proposals, MAN Energy wishes to secure an alternative, robust funding and ownership model to enable the fields to be used by the public in perpetuity. The proposals would deliver significant benefits including the provision of over 21 hectares [51 acres] of private land for publicly accessible open space in perpetuity -of which over 18 hectares [ 44 acres] would be managed by the Land Trust.”
He added that 80 pc of the site remain publicly accessible, with MAN paying £1.27m to the Land Trust to deliver ‘site management and initiatives’. Further benefits, according to Mr Suckley, included ‘significant enhancements’ to the area’s walk and cycling network, a boost to wildlife and plant life and more than £2m towards local primary and secondary education.
Many of its commitments would be written into ‘section 106’ developer contributions agreed with the council. Coun Oliver Johnstone told fellow committee members that it was ‘clearly a very controversial application’ - with the loss of green space needed to be weighed against much-needed new affordable housing.
He also noted that the panel was being asked to depart from the council’s planning policies by backing the officer’s recommendation to grant approval. “From the perspective of losing the open space at Mirrlees I’m not persuaded that the mitigating factors present a net gain for the community as they enjoy the benefits of that site at the moment,” he told the meeting.
“ I don’t believe that the suggested improvements identified under the section 106 agreements would scratch the surface felt by the impact of losing that amount of open space.”
Coun Johnstone also expressed concerns over congestion and extra demand for school places. And he felt the accompanying travel plan would ‘not come close to offsetting the impact that this development will have on the communities of Woodsmoor and Hazel Grove.
“I personally feel that this committee should give strong recommendation to refuse this application at the planning and highways committee,” he said. This was unanimously agreed by the committee, which also backed Coun Wendy Meikle’s proposal that the planning committee should undertake a site visit before the application goes before them on December 15.
Stepping Hill Area Committee met on Tuesday night (December 1).
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