Handforth set for new village in Cheshire plan

CHESHIRE East Council has committed to plans for 1,800 new homes on green belt land in Handforth.

The proposal is being put forward for the authority’s local plan – a future development strategy – which will be finalised towards the end of next year.

Under the plan Cheshire East aims to deliver 27,000 homes and 20,000 extra jobs by 2030. Some 42 sites have been earmarked for some form of development.

The authority says it has a “brownfield first” strategy but says some green belt is needed and believes a single release of land to the east of the A34 in Handforth would mitigate against the impact of piecemeal development.

Cheshire East has 41,000 hectares of green belt and the council says just 1% will be affected by this plan. It also intends to add to the green belt around Crewe and Nantwich.

Council leader Michael Jones said: “We’ve listened and we’ve acted. The proposed selection of sites will support not just the council’s vision for sustainable growth, but most importantly the people’s vision too.

“Rather than increasing the size of villages in the north and south, we are proposing a new village called the North Cheshire Growth Village in Handforth East. There are some difficult decisions to make but we believe that what we are now proposing will set out a solid blueprint for our future that will protect us from speculative and opportunistic developers, many of whom place profit before principles.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close