THE Knutsfordian is bemused, bothered and bewildered over the latest avalanche of applications flooding Cheshire East’s planning department.

The latest application to build 100 houses in Holmes Chapel follows on the heels of plans for 160 new builds – developers are keen to put the homes into Holmes Chapel.

In Mobberley there are proposals to build 375 homes on the Ilford site, dubbed Mobbford.

And in Knutsford we have the Parkgate plans for 230 houses and 150 dwellings are planned for Booths Hall.

Three months ago, in this very column, The Knutsfordian warned that his beloved town could become an urban ‘suburb’ of Greater Manchester.

That plans for the A556 and the Manchester Airport Relief roads, the prospect of an over-priced HS2, and the development of the £800 million ‘Airport City’ at Manchester Airport, leave Knutsford in a potentially precarious position.

The rash of house building applications only adds to the pressure on our historic town and its crumbling infrastructure.

Just a few days ago Knutsford Police warned motorists to drive carefully along the A556 in the Mere area due to potholes in the road which had caused at least three punctures.

The Knutsfordian notes that the BeWILDerwood planning application has reared its head again threatening our natural nature with its plans to build faux nature in our treasured woodland.

Cheshire East Council Leader Clr Michael Jones has said the council is determined ‘to continue its fight to fend off unplanned, unsustainable and unwanted development in the borough and protect the best of our countryside’.

Fine words butter no parsnips.

Knutsfordians, Mobbfordians, and people from Holmes Chapel etc need to see joined-up thinking. By the time Cheshire East adopts its local plan it will be too late. The Knutsfordian demands action now.

PS The Knutsfordian’s favourite Italian restaurant owner and pizza purveyor sopraffino Marco Dellapina has won his six-year long planning battle with Cheshire East and elevated Parma into Parma the Restaurant.

Whilst Mr Dellapina’s tenacity is to be admired, The Knutsfordian wonders why Cheshire East bothers trying to enforce planning. The two cases are unconnected, but The Knutsfordian is reminded of Cheshire East’s decision not to take action against developers who demolished the 18th century Caesars Place cottages during the Aldi development.

PPS The Knutsfordian has nothing but admiration for the owner of Mode Cottage who held out for an extra £70,000 over the £400,000 valuation when Cheshire East wanted to purchase the building to allow for an extension to Mobberley Primary School. A blow to our public bodies’ ‘something for nothing’ culture.