A VISION for a major canalside development in Middlewich has passed a major hurdle – and it could be better for the town than previously thought.

Members of Cheshire East Council’s strategic planning board endorsed the Brooks Lane masterplan at Wednesday’s meeting.

It includes an ambition for 200 new homes, new leisure and community facilities, green space, employment land and a location for a future railway station.

And it now could see a marina with up to 50 berths be built at the Trent and Mersey Canal – potentially more than double the size of the one CEC had included in draft masterplan.

That move follows a request from Middlewich Town Council to make better use of the historic waterway to boost tourism in the town.

Cllr Mike Hunter, Labour CEC member for Middlewich and chairman of the town council, told the committee: “We have a passion to reinvigorate our town and part of that is using our history and the canal corridor.

“Middlewich is in a special position on that Cheshire Ring and we need to take advantage of it. It is one of our assets and we need to use it.”

The draft masterplan included a proposal for a marina with around 20 berths, but Cllr Hunter explained that 14 existing berths from the canal would be lost as part of the vision anyway, making the new development little more than ‘like for like’.

He suggested nearby, larger marinas are full, and insisted the demand would be there for a larger marina to boost Middlewich’s economy.

“We understand that it is not just a question of us demanding and getting” said Cllr Hunter.

“But we would like CEC to amend that because it then gives us a chance of looking at a better option than what we have.

“I know it’s very difficult, I’m not stupid, but all I am asking for is a chance.”

Officer Jeremy Owens explained that the consultants who worked with CEC on the masterplan felt 20 was the number of berths that would be ‘appropriate and achievable on the site’ following discussions with the Canal and River Trust.

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He added: “It was evident that provision of a new marina was going to be quite a complicated, major, costly engineering operation.”

But the strategic planning board felt the masterplan should be amended to include a marina of up to 50 berths – with Cllr Phil Williams, Liberal Democrat, insisting he ‘wants to give Middlewich that chance’.

He added: “I’m a big fan of the canals, I think they bring a lot of money into they area, I think they bring a lot of tourism to the area, and we should be looking at every way of maximising that.”

CEC’s cabinet will now vote on the latest draft of the masterplan at a meeting on September 8, including the planning board’s proposal for a marina of up to 50 berths.