Cheshire East has ordered the old motorway works compound off Lymm Road, Little Bollington, back to grass. Two appeals are lodged; comments on one close 6 Nov.
Cheshire East Council has served an enforcement notice on the former motorway works compound off Lymm Road at Little Bollington. The notice requires the land to go back to a grassed field.
The land shares a postcode with the proposed Spodegreen data centre campus. Two appeals against the notice have been lodged, and the public can comment on one of them until 11.59pm on Thursday 6 November.
This is Little Bollington near Dunham Massey and Altrincham, about 14 miles north-west of Macclesfield. It is not Bollington near Macclesfield.
What the notice requires
Little Bollington with Agden Parish Council reported the notice at its meeting on 15 September. Its minutes say the notice requires:
- all the hardstanding, bunds and structures to be removed
- the land to be returned to a grassed field
The minutes say the notice was due to come into effect on 7 September 2026, unless an appeal was made before then. The council’s reference for it is 24/00186E.
Two appeals, one still open for comment
The Planning Inspectorate’s own case pages list two appeals against notice 24/00186E. Both will be decided on written evidence, without a hearing.
| First appeal | Second appeal | |
|---|---|---|
| Appellant | Millington Trust | SP Energy Networks Holdings Ltd |
| Inspectorate reference | 6015742 | 6015490 |
| Site as described | Land at the Millington Estate on the west side of Chester Road, Bucklow Hill, WA14 3QX | Land at Millington Estate, Chester Road, Bucklow Hill, WA14 4TP |
| Comments | Closed on 28 October | Open until 11.59pm, 6 November |
| Status | Awaiting site visit | Open for comments |
The appeals themselves are not published on those pages, so we cannot say on what grounds either appellant is challenging the notice. Under section 175 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, a notice does not take effect while an appeal against it is undecided.
The second appeal gives the site’s postcode as WA14 4TP. That is the same postcode Innova gives for its proposed Spodegreen Data Centre, as we reported in September.
How a temporary compound became an enforcement case
The site was given permission as a construction compound for road works, and that permission was extended more than once. The application history is set out in a Millington and Rostherne Parish Council agenda from January 2024. It lists:
- 18/3219M, the original approval
- 20/4682M, a variation of its first two conditions
- 22/3283M, a further variation for the “proposed continued use of construction compound including associated access, car parking, construction vehicles storage, portacabins and other associated works”
That agenda describes the land as the “Costain Compound Land south of Lymm Road, Little Bollington”. The council received application 22/3283M on 13 December 2023. Cheshire East’s planning register sits behind a security check that blocks automated reading, so we could not confirm what was decided on it.
The parish council objects
Little Bollington with Agden Parish Council held an extraordinary meeting on 22 October. Its draft minutes record that it resolved to object to both appeals. It will use a template supplied by the Data Centre Action Group, a residents’ group formed to oppose Innova’s plans.
At the same meeting, the council:
- agreed to give the action group the £405 it asked for, as and when needed
- agreed to send a representative to join the group
- noted that unpermitted works continue on separate land at Spode Green Lane, and asked the clerk to report them to enforcement again
The minutes also record that 12 people sit on the action group’s working group, with at least 80 in its WhatsApp group.
Where the data centre stands
No planning application for the data centre has been made, the parish minutes confirm. Innova has said it plans to apply to Cheshire East in 2026 or 2027, after its own consultation. Its proposals cover about 60 hectares south of the A56 and north of the M56.
The enforcement notice deals only with the compound. Little Bollington’s neighbourhood plan says the whole parish is Green Belt. National policy since late 2024 treats some previously developed Green Belt land as grey belt, so whether this land ends up as hardstanding or grass could matter to future applications.
What it means for you
- Comment on the second appeal by 11.59pm on Thursday 6 November. Use the Planning Inspectorate’s comment page for appeal 6015490. Comments can support or oppose the notice. They are seen by the inspector and may be published.
- The first appeal is closed. Comments on 6015742 ended on 28 October.
- Nothing changes on the ground yet. The notice cannot be enforced while the appeals are undecided. An inspector will visit the site and then decide.
- The data centre is a separate decision. Comments on these appeals are not objections to the data centre. Those come later, if Innova lodges an application.
- The parish council next meets on Tuesday 8 December at 7pm, in the sports hall at Little Bollington C of E Primary School.
For other schemes across the area, see our planning news page.
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