INSPECTOR DISMISSES APPEAL ON HEYES LANE PLANNING APPLICATION

A planning application (19/0684M) to build six properties on land off Heyes Lane has been dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate. Having originally been refused permission at Cheshire East Council's Northern Planning Committee last November on the Chair's casting vote (there were four votes in favour of refusal, four against and four abstentions), the applicant exercised their right of appeal to the inspector. The original grounds for refusal were:

- that insufficient pedestrian access would exist and the proposal would therefore be contrary to saved Policy DC6 of the Macclesfield Borough Local Plan and Policies SE1 and CO1 of the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy; and 

- that the proposed development would result in an overdevelopment of the site which would undermine the visual amenity of the area contrary to Policies SE1 and SD2 of the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy and saved Policy DC41 of the Macclesfield Borough Local Plan.

The inspector did not agree that pedestrian access would be insufficient, or that the proposals would represent over-development; however, he did identify the green verge to the eastern side of Heyes Lane (between Buckhorn Street and The Circuit) as being intrinsic to the character and appearance of the area and that its loss to accommodate the proposed development would be contrary to Policy AE3 of the Alderley Edge Neighbourhood Plan and Policy SD1 of the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy.

This is the first application to be considered by the Appeal Inspectorate since the Alderley Edge Neighbourhood Plan was overwhelmingly approved by the local community at a referendum on 6th May. The result is both a vindication of the decision made at Northern Planning Committee on 4th November 2020 and of the efforts of the many volunteer residents and Parish Councillors who worked so hard to ensure that the Neighbourhood Plan was in place and approved in time.