Furious Cheshire East councillors are demanding to know why they weren’t informed of proposals for a 20,000-home new town at Adlington and who at the council did know.
The government released a report from the new towns taskforce on Sunday revealing landowners Belport Adlington Limited had submitted proposals for a standalone new town of 14,000 to 20,000 homes on approximately 970 hectares of greenfield land around the existing village.
The first ward councillors and neighbouring councillors at Poynton knew of it was when the announcement about the 12 national sites suggested as possible locations for new towns was made public – and included Adlington.
A furious Cllr Michael Beanland (Poynton West & Adlington, Con) told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It’s highly unlikely that Cheshire East didn’t know, in my opinion. That’s a massive town – 20,000 homes that’s incredible.”
He said councillors were meeting with Cheshire East officers next week to find out what was going on. Adlington could be one of the locations for a new town(Image: New towns taskforce)
The taskforce says, in its report to government, that a new town at Adlington would be strategically located to benefit the economies of both Cheshire and Greater Manchester.
“Cheshire has a nationally significant life sciences cluster, with the Cheshire science corridor boasting a wealth of industry and research and innovation assets,” states the taskforce report.
“Greater Manchester has an extremely diverse economy, but growth is constrained by a shortage of housing. A new town at Adlington could help to sustain future growth in both Cheshire and Greater Manchester by easing housing pressures and supporting workforce mobility.”
Cheshire Wildlife Trust has urged the government to ‘think again about developing at Adlington’ saying it will put a massive strain on the wider countryside. “The rural parish of Adlington has areas of ancient woodland, home to species such as the rare lesser spotted woodpecker and unusual woodland flowers such as woodruff and wood speedwell,” said a spokesperson for the trust. “To the east of the parish are the foothills of the Peak District with local wildlife sites such as Macclesfield Canal and Styperson Park, which hosts one of the finest areas of bluebells in the whole county.”
The trust says the Cheshire and Warrington region is probably one of the most nature-depleted areas in the UK.