Local plan scoping consultation

Paragraph 4.5 presents an over optimistic view of connectivity within Cheshire East. It reads more like an estate agent’s brochure than a serious planning document. The truth is that connectivity within Cheshire East by road and rail is often poor, with outdated facilities and limited services, especially in an East – West direction.

Rail: While Crewe may be the centre for rail connectivity, there is no direct route there from the eastern part of Cheshire East. Crewe can only be accessed from the main line railway through Congeton – Macclesfield – Prestbury – Adlington and Poynton by changing trains at Stockport or Kidsgrove (both outside Cheshire East). Sunday services on this line have not run for several years and there seems no prospect of them resuming.

Road: The “A” roads in much of Cheshire East are of poor quality. Many are simply medieval cart tracks, widened in the early 20th Century. Roads such as the A523 (Poynton to Macclesfield), A536 (Macclesfield to Congleton), A34 (Monks Heath to Congleton) and A538 (Wilmslow to Prestbury and Macclesfield) all have sharp S-bends, hidden dips, and numerous dangerous junctions with minor roads, tracks and houses. Many junctions have poor sight lines, made worse by a failure to trim hedges. All these routes are largely unlit.

The “B” roads in Cheshire East are even worse, for example the B5358 (Bonis Hall Lane and Lees Lane), the main route from Macclesfield and Bollington to Manchester Airport, is notorious for multiple sharp S-bends and poor visibility. It has a history of serious accidents including multiple vehicle collisions and rollovers, plus hazardous road conditions such as flooding.

Roads across Cheshire East are usually poorly maintained and overused. Potholes are a particular problem on all Cheshire East roads. Repairs are often inadequate and soon crumble away. There has been little highway safety improvement work for many years.

The scoping report should present a true picture of Cheshire East’s poor connectivity and inadequate and often dangerous road network. This should be a major argument against large new housing and commercial developments in the Poynton and Adlington area, as well as across Cheshire East.

Paragraph 4.6, especially the statement that Cheshire East’s transport links make it easy to travel to and from other parts of the country, is false and misleading. The poor road network in Cheshire East makes it difficult to access many destinations. For example, it usually takes at least 45 minutes just to reach the M6 motorway from Poynton when going south, with a similar time needed to reach the A500 in Stoke on Trent when travelling to the East Midlands. Travel by road from Poynton, Macclesfield and Wilmslow to Manchester can easily take up to an hour at “rush hour” with major congestion all the way into Stockport and Manchester.

Rail services are no better, with frequent cancellations, overcrowding and Sunday services often not running. Bus services are often limited and infrequent with limited destinations – for example, it is impossible to get directly by bus from Poynton to Disley, Wilmslow or Manchester Airport.

It would be more truthful to say that travel in Cheshire East is often difficult, frustrating and time consuming and no major development should be allowed until there has been significant investment in both road and rail infrastructure.

A public body should not be making false and misleading statements in an official document.

The existing hospital provision in the eastern part of Cheshire East is inadequate. Macclesfield General Hospital has severe capacity issues and long queues are routine in the Accident and Emergency Department.

The recently published NHS England league table of NHS Trusts for Quarter 3 of 2025/26 identifies the East Cheshire NHS Trust as “Low Performing – the lowest category.” NHS England also note that East Cheshire has much the worst overall score of all the NHS Trusts in Northwest England.

East Cheshire NHS Trust has a series of poor scores in numerous categories. It is the very worst in England for:
• Percentage of cases where a patient waits 18 weeks or less for elective treatment,
• Difference between planned and actual 18 week performance; and
• The percentage of emergency attendances dealt with within 4 hours.
• East Cheshire NHS Trust is 119th out of 131 Trusts for Percentage of Patients waiting over 52 weeks for elective treatment.

The NHS England figures also show that, between December 2024 and November 2025, East Cheshire NHS Trust had 900 deaths compared to the expected figure of 700 – a rate over 28 per cent higher. The figures include patients who died in hospital as well as those who died within 30 days of discharge.

These figures demonstrate that there should be no new housing development in the eastern part of Cheshire East until these issues have been resolved and hospital capacity improved significantly.

Note there is no spare capacity in nearby areas – Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport is also at full capacity, and Stockport Council are planning several thousand new homes in their new Local Plan.

The best way to avoid extra air and light pollution is to leave open land undeveloped. It is impossible to urbanise swathes of Cheshire East without significant increases in pollution.

Building large housing estates on the edge of existing towns, some distance from most public facilities, will only encourage the use of private cars. The results of the recent Call for Sites suggest that most land put forward for development is some way from existing houses, shops and public facilities.

The new Cheshire East Local Plan should take full account of planned developments just over the county boundary. Poynton borders Stockport MBC to the north and west. Stockport are planning several thousand houses, mainly on Green Belt land, around the towns of Hazel Grove, Bramhall and Woodford. These sites are close, in some cases right up to, the border with Cheshire East.

As well as extra traffic, there may be increased pressure on schools in Poynton and other nearby areas of Cheshire East, as Stockport MBC have under provided primary school places in their Woodford Garden Village development.

The Cheshire East Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) (2024) includes Poynton as one of fourteen priority areas where flood risk is significant. Poynton suffered severe flooding in both 2016 and 2019. The SFRA confirms that Poynton is at risk from numerous types of flooding:

• Fluvial Flooding from rivers and associated watercourses (Poynton Brook).
• Surface water risk – Poynton is identified as at high risk of surface water flooding.
• Groundwater flood risk – Poynton and surrounding area form one of the two areas of highest groundwater flood risk in the whole of Cheshire East.
• Flood risk from sewers – the SFRA names Poynton as an area where sewer flooding has occurred. Some sewers, for example on Coppice Road, are too narrow for existing levels of discharge and could not accommodate any new developments.
• Reservoir flood risk – from the Cheshire East owned ornamental reservoir at Poynton Pool. Cheshire East accept this is a significant risk and are planning significant work to improve the safety of Poynton Pool. However, it is not possible to eliminate this risk.

Poynton is the only area in Cheshire East to feature in every category of flood risk in the SFRA. Sites must not be allocated for development if:

• The site is in Flood Zones 2 or 3 or at risk from any type of flooding; or
• Building on the site could reduce absorption of rainwater or displace flooding downstream where it could inundate existing properties.