Eight one-bedroom homes in the empty Townley Street Sunday School go to committee on Thursday. An old plan marks graves on the site, and there is no parking.
Council planners have recommended approval for turning Macclesfield’s empty Townley Street Sunday School into eight homes. The buildings have stood vacant since at least 2019.
The plan is for seven one-bedroom flats and a one-bedroom house, with landscaping at the front. There would be no parking spaces. Councillors on the Northern Planning Committee decide the application, 26/1472/FUL, on Thursday 29 October. The meeting starts at 10.30am in the Capesthorne Room at Macclesfield Town Hall (agenda, Cheshire East Council).
It is the fourth application on the site since 2019. The last plan, to knock the buildings down for eight townhouses, was refused and then lost at appeal in 2025.
Graves marked on the site
The Sunday School sits on the plot beside a late 18th-century Congregationalist chapel. A 19th-century plan of the chapel, submitted with an earlier application, “clearly shows marked graves across the area”, the officer’s report says (officer report, Cheshire East Council).
The council’s archaeology advisers do not object. They want two conditions instead:
- a written scheme of archaeological investigation, agreed before work starts
- an archaeological report on what is found
Disturbing human remains needs a licence from the Ministry of Justice, and the report says the applicant will be told so.
Why it is going to committee
Ward councillor Liz Braithwaite called the application in. In her request, quoted in the report, she listed these concerns:
- the possible burial ground, and an archaeology report written for an earlier application by a firm that has since stopped trading
- no off-road parking, when nearby conversions such as Townley Street Mill and Brook Street Mill have spaces
- bins: whether there are enough, how food waste would work, and how they would be collected from a site above street level
- little outdoor space for residents, including nowhere to dry washing
- the flood authority’s objection
- a fire safety point raised by Housing Standards about two flats where bedrooms are inner rooms
- in her view, overdevelopment of a small site
What the planners say
Officers accept there is some harm. Rear ground-floor windows face Marlborough Court about 4.5 metres away, so they would be obscure glazed to 1.7 metres, which limits the outlook from those bedrooms and kitchens. The lack of parking also counts against the scheme, but only a little, the report says, because the site is in the town centre.
On the other side of the scales, officers give “significant weight” to two things:
- new homes, while Cheshire East has only a 3.3-year supply of housing land against the five years it should have
- saving the buildings, which the council treats as a non-designated heritage asset in the Park Green Conservation Area
The council’s highways team raised no objection to the lack of parking. It said most trips would be on foot, by bike or by public transport. The built heritage officer called the changes “relatively minor” and the design sensitive, noting the buildings are in a poor state after years empty.
Only one public comment came in, from the 69 neighbours notified, and it supported the plan. Macclesfield Town Council made no comment.
One problem is still open
The Lead Local Flood Authority objects, because there is no detailed surface water drainage scheme. A small part of the site, at its eastern end, is in flood zone 2. At the time the report was written the information had not arrived.
So the recommendation is not a straight approval. Officers ask the committee to approve in principle and let them issue the permission once the drainage issue is resolved.
How the site got here
The planning history in the report runs like this:
| Date | Application | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| June 2019 | Demolish the Sunday School, build eight three-bedroom townhouses with garages (19/1009M) | Approved |
| July 2023 | Details needed under that permission’s conditions (23/2001D) | Refused |
| June 2024 | Demolish and build eight three-bedroom townhouses again (23/4601M) | Refused |
| August 2025 | Appeal against the 2024 refusal | Dismissed |
| October 2026 | Convert and extend the existing buildings into eight one-bedroom homes (26/1472/FUL) | Recommended for approval |
The big change is that the buildings would now be kept rather than demolished.
What it means for you
If you want to speak at the meeting, you have to ask in advance. Cheshire East’s rules say requests must reach speakingatplanning@cheshireeast.gov.uk by 12 noon the day before, so by midday on Wednesday 28 October. Objectors and supporters get three minutes each, and the ward councillor and town council get five (public speaking protocol, Cheshire East Council).
Officers often publish late updates on the day. The agenda page says to check it in the week of the meeting. Part 1 of the meeting is audio recorded and put on the council’s website.
The same meeting decides nine holiday lodges, a cafe and a shop at Price Poultry Farm in Higher Poynton. Other Macclesfield and Wilmslow decisions are on our planning news page. If you live nearby and are worried about on-street parking, our parking in Macclesfield page covers the town centre car parks and permits.
Have your say