Chester: Huge Wrexham Road homes plan recommended for approval

Two applications will be considered by Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee at a crunch meeting on Tuesday, January 8.

The first is from Redrow Homes which hopes to build 483 properties on around 25 hectares of land to the south of the site.

It also includes basic designs for a new 315-place primary school, nursery, supermarket, pub, shops and restaurant.

The second is a joint proposal from Redrow and Taylor Wimpey for 786 homes as well as sports pitches and a floodlit 3G artificial pitch.

This application relates to around 36 hectares of land to the north of the site.

A central park – ‘Moat Park’ – will also be built in the centre to incorporate the medieval moat site, which is a designated scheduled monument and cannot be altered.

It is further proposed that a nature reserve featuring 10 ponds will be created as a new home for the protected Great Crested Newts that will be displaced by the housing development.

The Wrexham Road site was officially removed from the Green Belt protected list in 2015 in a move that angered environmental campaigners.

Critics maintain there are enough ‘brown field’ sites to address the city’s soaring demand for housing.

Concerns have also been raised that local infrastructure, such as roads, GP surgeries and schools, would be unable to cope with the surge of new people living in the area.

Documents made public ahead of the planning meeting reveal a list of payments that the developers must make under planning law (Section 106) to offset the impact the new homes will have.

They include:

• £4.06 million towards delivering a new primary school

• £2 million towards health services

• £131,000 to provide allotments

• An as yet undisclosed sum to Lache Primary school

• £70,000 on CCTV

• £50,000 on cycle parking and storage

• £40,000 on electric vehicle charging

• £47,000 on park and ride facilities

Documents also reveal that of the 1,269 planned properties, 381 will be ‘affordable homes’. This equates to around a third (30 per cent).

In total there will be 73 one-bed homes, 209 two-bed properties, 353 three-bed homes, 590 four-bed dwellings and 44 five-bed houses.

There were initially plans for a new health centre on the site but the NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said this would not fit with its strategy for primary care provision.

Nearby doctors surgeries in Lache and Handbridge are both full to capacity and could not take an additional 2,600-3,900 patients from the new Wrexham Road estates, the council documents state.

The Section 106 contribution of £2 million will be used by the CCG to ensure the increased demand for primary care services is met by the time the homes are built.

Despite assurances and the list of payments, objections have still been lodged by the likes of Chester Civic Trust, Chester Cycling Campaign, SP Energy Networks and Westminster Park Residents Association.

The latter fears the new housing estates could create traffic misery on a busy road that often becomes gridlocked at peak times.

However, the Highways department has raised no objections as long as certain conditions are met by the developers.

There will be three access points to the site for vehicles: a new signalised junction at the King’s School entrance; from the Herons Way junction at Chester Business Park; and from the existing Park and Ride site on Wrexham Road.

In the conclusion of his report to the planning committee, case officer Paul Friston writes: “With significant benefits of the development, tempered only marginally by a few negative aspects to the scheme, the overriding conclusion is that this represents sustainable development that should be supported.”

If approved by councillors, it will be down to a planning expert at the council to give the green light to the final plans under delegated authority.

An outstanding 'outline application' that would allow up to 1,400 homes to be built on the site will be considered at a future date.