Council leader apologises after loss of High Court housing battle

Cheshire East Council has lost a High Court appeal after a judge ruled a 94-home development earmarked for Elworth Hall Farm in Sandbach could go ahead.

The council had refused Rowland Homes planning permission for the development in February 2013 – but that refusal was overturned by a planning inspector in April who ruled, among other things the council could not prove it had five-year supply of deliverable housing land.

This week that ruling was upheld by the judge.

Sandbach councillor Sam Corcoran (Lab) told the Crewe Chronicle: “I’m obviously disappointed that further houses will now be built on the Elworth Hall Farm site, however Cheshire East Council seems to be determined to throw money at the lawyers rather than solving the underlying problem which is Government policy combined with Cheshire East Council not having a Local Plan or five-year housing land supply.”

Cheshire East Council leader Michael Jones said: “The council’s doing its best to defend all open countryside and we are disappointed to lose any appeal so we often will look at the opportunity to go to judicial review.”

He said the fact the costs against the council were limited ‘shows we had some form of case’, adding he was disappointed with the decision.

“I apologise to the people of Elworth and we need to make sure we mitigate any impact as much as possible,” said the council leader.

He said the decision was based on data used a long time ago and ‘we’ve produced a lot of permissions, mainly on brownfield sites, since then’.

Cllr Jones added that as a new authority ‘it takes time’.

“Many people talk about Shropshire. In terms of scale of applications we do 4,000 applications a year, they do less than 2,000,” he said. “We are a massive authority in planning terms, the second largest in the country and complex. They also are losing housing sites to lack of five year supply.”

He added: “The council is naturally disappointed. We’re pleased that the cost are limited but it’s no use to the residents.”

He vowed the council would keep on fighting appeals.