Officers back 125 homes off Cumber Lane and 168 off Dean Row Road on 16 September, citing the new NPPF and a 3.3-year housing supply. How to speak.
Two housing schemes on the edge of Wilmslow, 293 homes between them, go to a single meeting on Wednesday 16 September. Both sites were set aside in the 2017 Local Plan for development after 2030. Council planning officers now recommend approving both.
The decision rests with Cheshire East’s Strategic Planning Board. It meets at 10.30am in the Capesthorne Room at Macclesfield Town Hall (agenda, Strategic Planning Board, 16 September 2026). Wilmslow is about six miles north-west of Macclesfield.
The two schemes
Land off Cumber Lane (application 25/1573/FUL) is a Bellway Homes plan for 125 homes on farmland south of Leigh Road, on the town’s western edge (officer report, 25/1573/FUL). An existing house, a garage and two large sheds would be demolished.
Land at Dean Row Road (25/2071/FUL) is a joint plan by Jones Homes and Taylor Wimpey for 168 homes on 9 hectares of fields (officer report, 25/2071/FUL). The site is bordered by Dean Row Road, Cross Lane and Browns Lane. To the north is the Heathfield Farm estate, whose 161 homes were approved in 2018.
Why “safeguarded” land is now in play
Both sites are safeguarded land under policy PG4 of the Local Plan Strategy: Cumber Lane as LPS59 and Dean Row Road as LPS58. Safeguarded land is held back for needs beyond the plan period, which runs to 2030. Until then, the rules for open countryside apply.
The officers accept that both schemes conflict with those policies. They give that conflict “very limited weight”. The reason is the rewritten National Planning Policy Framework, published in August 2026.
Its decision-making policy S5(j) says homes outside a settlement should be approved where they meet an evidenced unmet need, sit next to an existing town and can be served by infrastructure. Approval should follow unless the harm would “substantially” outweigh the benefits. A council without a five-year housing supply counts as having an unmet need.
Cheshire East is in that position. Its latest monitoring report found 8,780 deliverable homes against a five-year need of 13,162, which is a 3.3-year supply. That is measured against a government figure of 2,632 homes a year, not the Local Plan’s 1,800.
The officer report also records something that looks like the opposite. The borough’s Housing Delivery Test result, published on 17 August, was 213%: 6,508 homes built in three years against 3,061 required. Under the new rules, the five-year supply shortfall is what counts.
Cumber Lane: the peat question
Most of the objections to Cumber Lane concern peat. The site sits in the Lindow Moss landscape character area, and part of it lies on peat. The report records about 480 letters of representation, then about 155 more after the plans were revised.
Wilmslow Town Council objected in June 2025 and again in April 2026. Its grounds included:
- conflict with Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan policy on the Lindow Moss landscape
- the risk of lowering the water table
- moving peat in conflict with the NPPF
- density below the council’s own 30 homes per hectare
- building on the site ahead of the Local Plan review
Natural England objected in April 2026 over an “adverse impact upon deep restorable peat”. By July it had no objection. Peat would be dug out and reused on site. The applicant’s figures put peat removal at 10.1% of the scheme’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Officers give that “moderate weight” against it.
The report is not consistent on wildlife. Its summary says biodiversity net gain is provided “well in excess of the 10% requirement”. Its ecology section says the metric shows a 29.57% loss in habitat area. It also shows gains of 56.12% for hedgerows and 14.94% for watercourses. Off-site habitat would be needed to make up the difference, secured through the standard biodiversity gain condition.
Officers also criticise the layout. Homes along the western and northern edges back onto open land and the Leigh Road footpath rather than facing out. A neighbouring plot is the subject of a separate application, 26/2452/FUL, which is still undecided. The market homes lean large: 32 of the 87 have four bedrooms or more, and none has one. A condition would require the neighbouring dog kennels to close, because of noise.
Dean Row Road: back after a lost vote
Dean Row Road has been to the board once already. On 22 July a motion to approve it was lost and the board deferred it (minutes, 22 July 2026). Councillors asked for six things to be looked at again. The officers’ new report answers each one, and changes almost nothing:
| What councillors asked for | What the report says |
|---|---|
| Construction traffic from Dean Row Road only | Access from Pinewood Road and Browns Lane stays; “no planning reason” to refuse it |
| Keep more trees and hedgerows | Losses accepted by the council’s tree officer; the builders say no Category A or protected trees would go |
| Upgrade the existing cycle way instead of a new route | New route through the site stays |
| Flood risk | Collapsed culvert to be replaced, 225mm pipe upsized to 300mm; flood officers to attend |
| Money for buses | None; the 130 bus is judged adequate |
| Money for GP surgeries | Cannot be secured |
The only change is a shorter deadline. The builders have agreed to start within two years instead of three.
About 215 letters of objection came in over three rounds of consultation. The grounds listed include a complaint that residents of the first phase bought on the understanding that these fields would not be built on before 2030. Later letters said flooding had got worse since that phase was built.
The money that is not coming
Both reports drop the NHS’s requests for GP funding. For Dean Row Road the local NHS board asked for £151,704, or £903 a home, towards Kenmore Medical Centre and Handforth Health Centre. For Cumber Lane it asked for £113,000.
Officers say neither request can be required. Two recent appeal decisions in Sandbach rejected similar requests. At The Hill, the inspector said the NHS assumed every new resident would be new to the area. At Crewe Road, the inspector also noted that no specific scheme, costings or timings had been given.
What would be secured:
- Education: £733,186 from Cumber Lane for secondary and special school places; £1,329,779 from Dean Row Road if the money goes to a new school, or £930,791 for an expansion
- Affordable homes: 30% on each site, 38 at Cumber Lane (25 for social rent) and 51 at Dean Row Road (33 for social rent)
- Sport and allotments: £1,500 per family home for outdoor sport, plus indoor sport sums of £22,342.78 and £30,028.69, and £562.50 per family home for allotments
What it means for you
If you live near either site, this is your last chance to address the people making the decision. Anyone who wants to speak must register by 12 noon on Tuesday 15 September. Email speakingatplanning@cheshireeast.gov.uk (public speaking protocol).
On each application:
- objectors, supporters and the applicant get 3 minutes each
- Wilmslow Town Council and ward councillors not on the board get 5 minutes
The council publishes an update report the day before a meeting. It carries late letters and any change of advice. It will appear on the meeting page.
The same agenda includes a report on the national planning shake-up that takes effect on 31 October, when councillors lose the right to call applications in to committee. We report on that separately.
The minutes, which confirm the decisions, usually appear about two weeks after the meeting. We will report the outcome then. For other schemes across the district, see our Macclesfield planning news page, and our report on the 200 homes allowed on appeal at Prestbury Road.
Have your say