Councillors vote to refuse Wilmslow retirement apartment scheme

Churchill Retirement Living wants to bulldoze two properties at 17 and 19 Holly Road South and build 34 retirement living apartments for the over 60s.

Cheshire East planning officers had recommended the scheme be refused on the grounds it fails to provide on-site affordable housing or open space and because insufficient information had been submitted to assess the impact of the proposed development on existing trees on site.

Insufficient parking had not been listed because, in the application, Churchill had said their experience showed 0.3 spaces per apartment meets the required demand and this proposal provides 0.49.

But members of the northern planning committee disagreed, arguing 16 spaces for 34 apartments was not enough – and they added insufficient parking as a third reason for refusal.

Most of the debate at Wednesday's (February 15) meeting focused around the parking provision with Wilmslow town councillor Jon Newell saying: “Not only is it inadequate, it materially deviates from the Cheshire East local plan.”

Cllr Jon Newell (Image: Wilmslow Town Council)

He said while the 0.3 space is probably correct in large towns and in cities with reliable public transport, it is not true for Cheshire East.

When asked by Wilmslow councillor Iain Macfarlane where else, locally, residents could park if the 16 spaces weren’t adequate ‘bearing in mind it’s all double lines outside the whole of that area’, Cllr Newell replied: “There are a small number of gaps between the double yellow lines on Holly Road South which are two hours restricted parking… Thereafter Sainsbury’s car park is the closest place where you could park for any length of time.”

The council’s highways officer, Neil Jones, told the committee he was not happy with the parking allocation – but had not objected because the planning officer had said Cheshire East had recently lost an appeal over a similar issue with regard to another Churchill application, Cypress House at Handforth.

“Obviously we were concerned about the level of parking on this (Wilmslow) location because the shortfall is quite a lot,” said Mr Jones.

He said even if this scheme was treated as if it was sheltered accommodation it should have 30 spaces, according to Cheshire East standards.

Churchill did not send a representative to the meeting so Macclesfield councillor Alift Harewood asked planning officer Paul Wakefield how the parking spaces would be allocated.

He said he understood they would not be allocated to a particular apartment, it would be on a ‘first come, first served basis’.

Ward councillor David Jefferay said he believed the proposed building would be overbearing for existing houses at the back.

Cllr David Jefferay (Image: Cheshire East Council)

He added the site was over-developed and ‘there’s very little outdoor space for the residents, there is very little outdoor space that people can walk to from this location’.

With regard to parking, he said there was a material difference between this application and the Handforth one the council lost at appeal, because there were just a few parking bays on Holly Road South for overspill and these were time-restricted.

Knutsford councillor Tony Dean proposed the application be refused as per the officer’s recommendation, with the highways objection added, and this was seconded by Cllr Paul Findlow.

The application could not be refused outright at committee because, following the receipt of revised plans, the public consultation did not end until two hours after the planning meeting had started. Instead it was delegated back to officers, in consultation with the chair, to refuse.

Ten councillors voted for the refusal and one abstained.