Go-ahead for controversial homes plan despite objections
Plans for up to three homes on land off Bridge Street in Wybunbury have been approved, two months after a separate proposal for six homes on the same site was refused.
By Cheshire Live
Plans for up to three homes on a field in Wybunbury have been approved despite local objections.
The application relates to land off Bridge Street, on the edge of the village.
Martin and Simon Poole applied for permission in principle for up to three new dwellings on the site.
Permission in principle is an early stage of the planning process for housing-led development. It considers whether a site is suitable in principle, based only on location, land use and the amount of development proposed.
Detailed matters such as layout, design, access, drainage, landscaping and appearance would have to be dealt with later through a technical details consent application before any homes could be built.
The latest approval follows a complicated planning history on the land.
The applicants already have permission in principle for up to six homes on land off Bridge Street. That approval was granted by a planning inspector in December 2025 after an appeal against Cheshire East Council’s non-determination of the application within the required timescale.
In April 2026, the same applicants submitted another permission-in-principle application for up to six additional homes on the same land.
That second six-home proposal was refused in May.
Planning officers concluded that, when considered alongside the existing permission, the two schemes would cumulatively amount to a major development of up to 12 homes.
They said that would take the proposal outside the scope of the permission-in-principle process, which can only be used for small-scale housing schemes of up to nine homes.
The applicants then returned with the latest application for up to three homes.
That proposal has now been approved.
The scheme attracted objections from ward councillor Janet Clowes, Wybunbury Parish Council and 11 residents.
Concerns raised around earlier proposals for the site included its position outside the village settlement boundary, its countryside setting, the effect on the rural character of the area, and the relationship with nearby heritage and environmental features.
A planning officer’s report on the latest proposal acknowledged that the development would change the rural character of the site and result in a small loss of agricultural land.
The report also accepted that the proposal conflicted with the development plan when considered as a whole.
However, officers concluded that the site was in a sustainable location and that the adverse impacts would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits when assessed against the National Planning Policy Framework.
A key factor was Cheshire East Council’s lack of a five-year supply of housing land.
The council’s latest published position shows a 3.3-year supply of deliverable housing sites, below the five-year level required by national planning policy.
When a council cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, the planning balance can shift in favour of approving housing schemes unless the harm is judged to clearly outweigh the benefits.
That does not mean every housing application must be approved, but it can make it harder for councils to refuse smaller housing schemes on sites considered suitable in principle.
For Wybunbury residents, the approval means the principle of up to three homes on this part of the Bridge Street land has now been accepted.
The decision does not give full detailed planning consent for house designs or construction work.
Further technical details would still need to be approved before development could proceed.
The application can be viewed on Cheshire East Council’s planning portal using reference 26/2134/PIP.