CPRE Cheshire initial concerns about Adlington New Town proposals

A government announcement about the development of New Towns in England has been expected for some months. However, it came as a bolt out of the blue to CPRE Cheshire, local communities and to the MP for the area when it was recently announced that a New Town of up to 20,000 new homes could be built at Adlington, just north of Macclesfield.

We note that Adlington is one of 12 potential locations identified across England, some of which are in what appear to be more suitable urban locations. We also note that details of the proposal are very sketchy at this stage and public consultation has yet to take place. However, even at this early stage CPRE Cheshire is extremely concerned about the Adlington proposal, for numerous reasons including (in summary) that it would:

• cause substantial loss of and harm to up to nearly 1,000 hectares of Green Belt
• conflict with CPRE’s vision for a “brownfield first” approach to building new homes
• cause landscape harm on the fringes of the Peak District
• add to urban sprawl particularly when considered alongside other new developments in nearby areas (e.g. plans for over 1,000 homes to be built at Woodford and several infill developments between Hazel Grove in Stockport and Poynton in Cheshire East)
• close up the open countryside between Poynton and Macclesfield, extending the Greater Manchester conurbation well into Cheshire
• be primarily car focussed – whilst there is a rail station at Adlington it is on the Manchester-London main line and it would be very difficult or impossible at reasonable cost to provide further local stopping services on a frequent basis
• cause loss of productive farmland
• raise many other questions e.g. around water and sewage capacity, impacts on water quality and flood zones, biodiversity, traffic volumes and air quality.

The promoters of the Adlington New Town, Belport, maintain that it could be delivered quickly because the land does not require remediation and could deliver a diverse housing mix. Belport are offering ‘exemplar place making’ with 40% affordable homes. However, CPRE take issue with the Government’s faulty definition of this term (under which even housing at 80% of market value is counted as ‘affordable’), which is likely to weaken any resultant benefit for local people. This is particularly so given the high market housing prices in Cheshire East.

CPRE Cheshire supports the development of new homes where these are required to meet local needs and are mainly focused on suitable brownfield sites in urban areas. However, for the reasons stated above we are extremely concerned about the proposals for Adlington. If you require more information about CPRE Cheshire’s response to these proposals, or would like to express your views to us about them, please feel free to contact us at info@cprecheshire.org.uk.

More information

• Government New Town Task Force Report (the proposals for Adlington are on pages 32 and 33).
• National CPRE response to the Task Force report. We expect further detail to emerge at the national level as the various CPRE branches consider the proposals affecting their areas.