A WATER park in Chelford could be back on the cards after a social enterprise resubmitted plans despite two previous rejections.

Cheshire Lakes Company, which initially submitted plans for a wakeboarding and outdoor water sports facility in March 2016 at the disused Mere Farm Quarry site, has sent in new proposals.

The application has a turbulent history having been rejected in July last year following an administrative error from Cheshire East Council, being approved in August and then called back in for debate and rejected again in November.

New plans from the company, which is headed up by director Tim Woodhead, see a detailed ‘community engagement’ document with feedback from a range of organisations and members of the public.

The planning application said: “Cheshire Lakes CIC Board of Directors have undertaken a series of consultations to enable the planning team of Cheshire East to understand the views of a wide variety of groups, individuals and organisations to allow the voice of the whole community to be given in this submission.

“We believe that we have a great project to offer Cheshire East but needed to understand and listen to the views of others to give us the confidence to proceed with the project. This document we hope provides a significant response from our community and shows the support we have achieved over the last few months to help us bring this dynamic social enterprise to Cheshire.”

Following Cheshire East Council’s approval on August 24, the application was called back in for debate amid concerns that development would harm ecological diversity at the site.

But in the most recent submission, an ecological assessment carried out by Avian Ecology Ltd on behalf of Cheshire Lakes, talks in more detail about the group’s conservation efforts.

The report said: “Although the site is or is likely to be used by some protected and notable species, the vast majority of potential ecological effects have been avoided and/or minimised through sensitive scheme design, seasonal activity restrictions and the creation of new habitat features.

“Additional mitigation measures to protect biodiversity during the construction and operational phases of the development are outlined to further avoid and/or minimise the potential for significant adverse effects and ensure legal compliance. No significance adverse residual effects are therefore predicted to occur.”

According to the assessment, the scheme has been designed to encourage ‘net gains’ for biodiversity as a result of the development, whilst also considering compliance with the Section 106 agreement to minimise potential risks to Manchester Airport.

Tim previously told the Guardian that despite ‘amazing public support’, he did not feel that councillors had given the plans a ‘fair hearing’.   “There has been amazing public support for our proposals and we feel, along with our professional team of lawyers and planning consultants that errors by the council planning department have not given us a fair hearing,” he said.

Speaking after the latest rejection, he said: “We can assure you, we will be appealing and fighting and will absolutely never give up.”

To view the new application visit planning.cheshireeast.gov.uk using reference 17/0510M.