Stockport’s Liberal Democrat chief has urged a neighbouring authority to ‘think again’ about its plans for a 1,500-home garden village on the fringes of the borough.
Cheshire East Council is proposing to create the development to the east of the A34 at Handforth, close to Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme and Heald Green.
The 121-hectare development would also include new employment space, a mixed-use ‘village centre’ and new ‘green infrastructure’.
It is one of 14 government backed garden villages across the country and a key development site within Cheshire East Council’s local plan.
An ‘adjoining authority consultation’ is currently underway with Stockport Council, and proposals recently went before the Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme South area committee for comment.
Councillor Mark Hunter, leader of Stockport’s Liberal Democrat group, told the meeting he remained ‘very concerned’ about the development – particularly the extra traffic it would bring to the borough’s roads.
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He said: “Even at this late stage I have implored Cheshire East Council to think again about this scheme, which I think was ill-conceived right from the start, bearing in mind the impact we all know it will have on the surrounding area – which is Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme – in terms of the additional traffic impacts.”
Coun Hunter, who represents Cheadle Hulme South, added that he had further concerns about the potential ‘secondary entrance and exit points’ identified for green areas around the site.
He said. “It’s pretty clear to me that those of us who thought this was a ‘thin end of the wedge’ kind of thing – and would lead to yet further development in future – had every reason to be concerned.
“Because the detailed plans put forward now clearly show where further entrance and exit points would in future be developed.”
He also made reference to plans for more than 2,300 square metres of new retail space at Handforth Dean recently passed on appeal – although two other large schemes were refused.
“The potential implication of both of those is frankly unimaginable,” he said.
And Coun Hunter warned that the ‘transformation’ of the A34 seen over recent years would be ‘as nothing’ compared to what the garden village would bring.
“Talk about rearranging the Gatley lights completely, underpasses and overpasses – all those kind of things are now being discussed because the A34 will simply not cope with that volume of traffic.”
He continued: “This traffic will not be heading in the opposite direction to Wilmslow and those types of places, it’s going to be coming our way and hopefully we can all say to Cheadle East Council that we are not happy about this and even at this late stage we would implore them to look again at it.”
Stockport Council is putting together a full response to the consultation.
Cheshire East Council did not respond to a request for comment.
