IN Brief:
- Cheshire West and Chester councillors have approved Wain Homes’ 240 home Backford Cross development.
- The 30.3 acre scheme includes more than seven acres of open space and 24 affordable homes.
- Additional transport evidence addressed concerns about Old Meadow Drive, junction capacity and road safety after the proposal was deferred in September.
Wain Homes has secured planning approval for 240 homes at Backford Cross near Ellesmere Port after Cheshire West and Chester councillors reconsidered the scheme following an earlier deferral over road safety and junction capacity.
The 30.3 acre site lies north of Dunkirk Way and will be accessed from Old Meadow Drive, which also serves the first phase of Redrow’s neighbouring The Pastures development. The planning committee approved the Wain Homes application when it returned on 6 October.
Councillors had deferred the proposal in September despite an officer recommendation for approval. They wanted further evidence on the capacity of nearby junctions, the safety of surrounding roads and the improvements needed before traffic from the new development was added to vehicles generated by neighbouring housing.
The additional transport work addressed those concerns by examining the combined traffic associated with Backford Cross and the remaining homes at The Pastures. A new pedestrian crossing is also proposed on the main road, alongside off site highway measures intended to improve movement around the development.
Access through an existing residential road creates a different construction constraint from a new entrance formed directly from a major highway. Heavy vehicles, deliveries and workforce traffic have to share a route used by residents, which increases the importance of delivery management, temporary traffic controls and separation between construction activity and everyday journeys.
The approved scheme has already been reduced from an earlier proposal for 267 homes. The current housing mix comprises 12 one bedroom houses, 72 two bedroom homes, 108 three bedroom homes, 41 four bedroom homes and seven five bedroom properties.
Twenty four of the homes will be affordable, equivalent to 10% of the scheme. The proportion was agreed after viability work considered abnormal costs associated with land contamination, the gas pipeline and the overhead electricity infrastructure crossing the site.
More than seven acres of public open space are planned across the site, including green corridors, pedestrian and cycle links, landscaping and sustainable drainage. Those areas also influence where roads and housing plots can be positioned because they create fixed landscape and drainage zones within the development.
Surface water management is particularly important when greenfield land is converted to housing. Roofs, roads and drives shed water more quickly than open ground, so attenuation features have to slow runoff before it leaves the site and prevent the development from increasing peak flows into the receiving drainage system.
The drainage layout also has to work with finished ground levels. Roads must drain without directing water towards homes, while basins, swales or other attenuation features need sufficient fall and storage capacity to function during heavy rainfall.
Utilities impose another layer of constraints. High voltage overhead electricity lines cross the land, while a high pressure gas main and an oil pipeline affect parts of the site. Building plots, roads, landscaping and construction operations therefore have to respect safety clearances and access requirements around infrastructure that will remain in place.
Overhead lines can restrict lifting operations as well as permanent development. Cranes, telehandlers and other plant must remain clear of electrical conductors during construction, which can affect where materials are stored and how houses close to the corridor are sequenced.
Buried pipelines create a different risk because their location may not be visible from the surface. Excavation, piling and drainage work close to them require accurate setting out and controlled methods so the development does not damage operational infrastructure.
The site sits within the Ellesmere Port settlement boundary and within one of the principal settlements identified for housing growth. That planning status supported the principle of residential development, but it did not remove the need to demonstrate that transport, utilities, drainage and landscape constraints could be accommodated.
Phasing will determine how those systems are brought into service. Roads and drainage generally need to advance ahead of the first occupied plots, while later phases must remain accessible to construction traffic without routing heavy vehicles through completed residential areas wherever possible.
The relationship with The Pastures makes that sequencing more complex because Old Meadow Drive already serves homes outside the Wain development. Temporary arrangements cannot assume exclusive control of the access road, and permanent highway improvements have to account for traffic from both schemes.
Once planning conditions and the legal agreement are completed, Wain Homes can move towards detailed construction planning and site mobilisation. Approval settles the principle and broad layout of the 240 homes, while the engineering challenge now shifts to delivering roads, drainage and utilities around existing infrastructure and an access route already shared with neighbouring residents.
