Residents who battled plans for a new town in ‘idyllic’ Cheshire countryside still fear housing could be built and are urgently demanding the landowner reveals its future plans.
Last week, the government revealed Adlington – an area of gently rolling hills and pastureland on the edge of the Peak District – would not be one of seven new towns being developed in the next few years.
It followed a huge campaign involving three protest groups, opposition from local councils and the area’s MP.
They all argued the area was the wrong location because the land is far from public services, has poor transport links and is productive pastureland for dairy and beef cattle, and sheep.
Its farms produce 4.5 million litres of milk each year, campaigners say.
Now, the area’s residents and tenant farmers are on tenterhooks waiting for Belport, owners of the land which formerly belonged to the aristocratic Legh family, to announce their next move.
Andrew Rowe, 51, a business director and one of the organisers of the Stop Adlington New Town campaign, said: ‘When the news landed that we had been removed from the list we jumped for joy.
‘Now, we are back to the reality that we need to keep an eye on what Belport may pivot to next.’
Gerald Hartley, 72, a business owner, said locals are ‘trying to best guess Belport’s next move’ for the land, which he described as ‘idyllic’.
Fellow campaigner Bridget Wenham, 80, added: ‘We haven’t heard from them since before Christmas and there has only been one consultation event. We’ve never seen their full plans for how the new town would have been built.’
Cattle farmer Alex Kelsall, 31, whose 150-acre family farm could have been lost under compulsory purchase powers, said: ‘We’re now secure but it’s the tenants whose future is still uncertain and it’s still a very worrying time.
‘Belport own the estate and they are going to want a return on their investment.’
Mr Kelsall, who has taken over the running of a farm bought by his grandfather and has 80 cows, added: ‘Some of the tenants have had their farms for generations. They have livestock and they still need some clarity’.
The locals only found out Adlington was no longer in the running for a new town ‘through the media’ – rather than being informed directly.
The residents fear the firm may still attempt to develop new homes at several of the 15 farms where tenancies are running out – which could include executive homes rather than smaller properties for starter homes or older people downsizing.
There is further concern after a planning inspector’s decision earlier this month to allow an appeal by a developer wanting to build 540 new homes on neighbouring green belt land at the ‘garden village’ on Woodford Aerodrome, just north of Adlington.
Mr Hartley said: ‘There’s a need for new housing but it’s got to be in the right place with the correct facilities and the right sort of housing.
‘We moved here 25 years ago specifically because it’s in open countryside. It’s designated as green belt and is highly productive farmland.
‘It’s an area everyone admires as they pass through it. The green belt exists to prevent urban sprawl. If developers were allowed to do what they want and ignore brownfield sites, we wouldn’t have any countryside left.’
Mother-of-two Aysha Hawcutt, 48, argued: ‘I don’t see what’s wrong to say that they should leave the area as it is.’
She called for more new homes to be built ‘in the towns we’ve already got’, such as Stockport and Macclesfield, which have the facilities and infrastructure.
The area has only one a single-carriageway A road, which is already heavily congested, a station with one train per hour in each direction and few school places.
The only development that has taken place in recent years around Adlington has been small-scale, such as on a former garage in the hamlet of Whiteley Green.
Highlighting the area’s biodiversity including deer, badgers, hedgehogs, rodents, lapwings and even 200 species of moths, she said: ‘Green fields are not empty land. They’re growing grass for the animals to produce food for the country to eat.’
But she added that if Belport choose to go ahead with housing proposals at some of the farms, residents at least have the chance to make representations through the standard planning process.
In contrast, the new town would have been decided by the Secretary of State.
Another campaigner, Melanie Paul, also emphasised the value of the land. ‘There’s a lot of working farmland producing an awful lot of food including 4.5 million litres of milk.
‘Being able to produce our own food is important. I don’t think we should lose that to build more homes.’
Mrs Wenham, who has lived in Adlington with her husband for 21 years, described it as a ‘lovely area’ but was concerned the new town plans would have done nothing to solve a shortage of smaller or affordable homes.
She said: ‘The houses they were planning for would not have been affordable and were not suitable for people wanting to downsize.’
The campaigners praised the support of their local Labour MP, Tim Roca.
‘He has been opposed all the way through and has given us fantastic representation,’ Mr Hartley said.
In the wider North West, the idea of building a new town at Adlington left even those in favour of new housing aghast – saying it should be built closer to where there are big shortages in Greater Manchester and large towns in the North West.
Gerald Cooney – former Greater Manchester Labour council leader and election agent to ex-Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who spearheaded the new towns agenda – criticised the location suggesting it had been proposed so developers could maximise their profit.
After Adlington was placed on an initial list of 12 possible new town locations last year, Mr Cooney said: ‘If you were building a new town in this area, you don’t need it there. They are making a lot of money out of it, that’s why they’re doing it there’.
In a statement, Belport confirmed it may still seek to build new homes.
It said: ‘We acknowledge the Government’s decision to take forward seven large new towns and note their assessment of Adlington being a credible development opportunity.
‘Adlington remains a viable proposition that can deliver homes for Cheshire and the North West alongside infrastructure and amenities. We look forward to further engagement and are ready to assist Government and the region in delivering new home ambitions.’
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