War of words after blocking of 275-home development is overturned

A BITTER row has erupted between a property developer and Cheshire East Council over an appeal which overturned the authority’s decision to try to block a 275-home development in Crewe.

Muller Property Group was successful in its appeal against the refusal of planning permission for phase two of its Sydney Road development.

Planning inspector David Rose said the council acted with “unreasonable behavior” and ordered it to pay Muller’s £60,000 costs.

Muller chief executive Colin Muller claimed the decision was “proof of the council’s continued waste of tax-payers’ money fighting appeals for political rather than sound planning reasons”.

The company originally submitted its plans to build the homes in January 2015.
 
Following discussions with the council, the decision was taken to extend the period of determination to October 2015 on the indication the site would be identified as a “site considered to be allocated”.

When the anticipated report to the October meeting of the council’s strategic planning board did not materialize, an appeal against non-determination was lodged in November 2015, alopng with a parallel planning application.

In April 2016, the application was recommended for approval. But elected members of the council refused permission, but no decision was issued and a request for the matter to be reconsidered was not accepted by the council.

Rose said: “The parallel application provided a legitimate opportunity to grant permission and to cut short the appeal.”

Muller said: “Yet again, Cheshire East Council has shown itself to be a wholly anti-development council, which prefers to spend tax-payers’ money on trying to defend the indefensible rather than seeing the homes that local residents need delivered.

“As the inspector found in his report, there were no ground for our original application to be refused, and our belief that the council’s behavior was unreasonable has been corroborated.”

A council spokesman said: “We have noted the comments of Muller Homes in respect of this appeal.

“Cheshire East Council’s strategic planning board has granted thousands of permissions and a great deal of sites remain undeveloped.

“Therefore, we are surprised by Mr Muller’s comment claiming the council is ‘wholly anti-development’. This is simply not true.

“The council has a responsibility to its residents and to apply a policy of planned and sustainable development.

“The council will give careful consideration to the inspector’s summary and not further comment will be made at this stage.”