Parish Council Planning Application Response
Residents of Ashton Hayes may be unaware that an outline planning application has been submitted to Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) for the construction of 16 houses on land adjacent to Estone Place and Ashton Lane.
Published: 11 March 2026
The Parish Council believes that this application is seeking to take advantage of the recent change exercised by HMG which considerably increases the provision that CWaC need to have for new build homes. Previously, CWaC had a new housing provision in its Local Plan to cover the next 7 years. HMG have increased the target for CWaC to 10,000 homes, reducing the current provision to 1.9 years. As such the previous Green Belt rules no longer apply and this land will be classified as ‘Grey Belt’. CWaC have this problem across the County and have indicated that they currently have applications for some 15,000 homes! This is placing an enormous burden on their planning resources. They are highly unlikely to refuse this application and, given HMG targets, it is highly probable that if they did refuse, a subsequent appeal would be successful.
The Parish Council has spent some considerable time examining this application and, as with all applications it considers, has compared the application with the current Neighbourhood Plan. The conclusions are that this application is, in principle, not inconsistent with the Neighbourhood Plan. There are, however, a number of concerns that we would wish to be addressed should this application be followed by a detailed planning application. One major concern is the ability of the sewage pumping station operated by United Utilities on Peel Hall Lane, which already overflows into Gongar Brook in heavy wet weather, to cope with an additional 16 properties.
The deadline for submitting comments to CWaC regarding this application is Thursday 19th March. Submissions can be made on-line to CWaC’s planning department, referencing the application number above. If anybody has reasoned concerns, we would urge you to submit them by the deadline and in so doing, you may wish to consider the PC’s comments. The Parish Council submission, which does not object to the application per se, but raises various concerns, is available to read here.
The short timescales associated with this application have prevented us from organising a public meeting. However, should a detailed application follow this outline application, the PC will organise an appropriate public meeting at that time.
