Nine-year battle ends with 142 homes to be built on Chester flood plain land – Cheshire Live

A nine-year-long Chester planning battle has finally concluded after councillors approved 142 houses on Sealand Road with a heavy heart.

The decision brings to an end a saga which has seen multiple applications and appeals, a public inquiry, and the involvement of government ministers.

However, many councillors felt that their hands had been tied into accepting the bid with one saying she was morally opposed to approving it.

I do not believe we have found that [planning reason for refusal] and we have the duty as a planning committee to act responsibly, Cllr Charles Fifield said at the meeting.

Under those circumstances, I move for approval.

It means developers Anwyl can now build a mixture of one to four-bedroom properties on the former University of Chester playing fields.

Much of the councillors discussions surrounded the flood risk to the site, which has been cited by past planning committees and inspectors as a reason for refusal.

The original application for the site, which was submitted in 2012, was refused in 2013 on those grounds, and an appeal on that bid was also dismissed.

Following that, another application was submitted in 2014, which was recommended for refusal by council planning officers but councillors voted to accept it.

That prompted the Minister for Housing, Communities, and Local Government Eric Pickles MP to call-in the decision in 2015 and following a public inquiry he refused outline planning permission.

However that was then challenged by the applicant in the High Court, leading to the public inquiry reopening which concluded with another government minister, Sajid Javid, judging that the proposal passed the Sequential and Exception tests in terms of flood risk and granted outline planning permission in February 2018.

As such, councillors largely had their hands tied with the application before them, as only issues relating to appearance, landscaping, layout, and scale could be considered.

Ultimately, the committee felt they could not find a planning reason to refuse it but Cllr Gina Lewis said morally, I do not feel I can support this.

Her view was seemingly shared by several other councillors, as five voted to approve the bid, one voted against, and five chose to abstain.

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Nine-year battle ends with 142 homes to be built on Chester flood plain land - Cheshire Live