COUNCILLORS could finally give the green light for a housing development which was first proposed 11 years ago at a meeting next week.

Anwyl Homes wants to build 138 properties at the Victoria Mills site in Macclesfield Road, Holmes Chapel, in a move that would see current tenant Fine Décor relocate to Congleton.

And ahead of a strategic planning board meeting next Wednesday where the plans will be considered, Cheshire East Council officers are calling for the scheme to get the go-ahead.

In a report published ahead of the meeting, CEC said: “The development of the site would provide a number of economic benefits by virtue of the economic activity generated by the future residents of the houses in Holmes Chapel and beyond.

“The fact that the existing industrial user is relocating to more modern, suitable premises within Congleton as a consequence of this scheme will safeguard existing jobs as well as provide greater certainty for Fine Décor to invest in their future growth in the borough, with the added economic activity that their growth will bring to the borough.”

Plans for a new housing development at Victoria Mills were first lodged with the former Congleton Borough Council in March 2008.

CEC approved the scheme in August 2012 with the requirements that 15 per cent of the scheme is affordable housing and a new home for Fine Décor is found within the borough.

Those rules were watered down in July 2017 to allow Fine Décor to relocate in Cheshire East or West and the amount of affordable housing to stand at 10 per cent.

But with a new home for the business found seven miles away in Congleton, Anwyl now wants CEC to approve the plans with just five per cent affordable housing.

CEC officers say they are satisfied with the scheme providing four apartments and three two-bedroom terraced homes as affordable – but Holmes Chapel Parish Council says those numbers are ‘disappointing’.

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Parish councillors are also calling for the scheme to be rejected over a lack of detail on the estate’s access, a reduction in footpaths in the plans and a loss of car parking if the site is developed.

To view the plans, search for ‘16/3724C’ on CEC’s planning website.