Local plan scoping consultation

Ref: Cheshire East Overdevelopment Plan in Mobberley.


Dear Sir/Madam


Please accept this correspondence as formal objection to the Cheshire East plans for potential development in Mobberley, especially around the Smith Lane and Broadoak lane areas, the plan has major health and safety implications which I aim to highlight within this document.


This objection comes from a resident with over 30 years’ experience in aircraft operations at Manchester Airport, plus having lived (REDACTED) for over 25 years, gaining in depth local knowledge of living under a flight path, and local environment issues. I trust this experience, along with my understanding of planning through serving as local councillor on the Mobberley Parish Council planning committee for 16 years, qualifies me to speak frankly about how the proposed plans has direct impact on the health and safety of existing and potential new residents plus their property, making Mobberley (especially the Smith Lane/Broadoak Lane area) the most inappropriate area in the whole of Cheshire to develop.


Manchester Airport (High Risk Health and Safety to General Public)

Mobberley has, unlike anywhere else in Cheshire, both runways of Manchester International Airport located within its boundaries. Whilst residents residing under the ILS approach are greatly affected by aircraft arrival/departure operations. The Public safety Zone (PSZ) is a smaller area within the approach, which illustrates as funnels from the end of both runways, these areas are identified as most at risk of critical aircraft incident. These PSZ areas have strict restrictions in terms of planning and are NOT areas where any form of development should even be considered.
The PSZ’s for the two operating runways in Mobberley span across Smith Lane through the agricultural fields towards Broadoak Lane.
The areas adjacent to the PSZ also have their own set of restrictions, based primarily on reducing public dwell time, whereby residential property and areas of employment would generate significant public dwell time, should not permitted in this area. Moving outward of the adjacent areas further, in terms of planning, other factors need to take into consideration, solar panels or flood lighting, would not be permitted due pilot light and dazzle, a robust rubbish removal program would need to be in operation to prevent scavenger bird activity, endangering aircraft with bird strikes, unfortunately, this is not something CEC has managed to deliver to existing residents efficiently this summer.

In addition to planning restrictions regarding public safety, Manchester Airport also generates, with repetitive consistency, relentless noise of arriving and departing commercial aircraft thus causing major Mental Health impact for local residents through, the inability to sleep, hold an uninterrupted conversation, open windows, or enjoy outside space.

An excellent example of this can be found within your own documents, in the words of a CEC planning inspectorate, rejecting the planning appeal hearing by Harman group for residential dwellings on the Ilford’s site, the planned site, was not within in the PSZ, nor was it on land adjacent to it, yet the levels of aircraft noise and the damaging effect it would have for proposed residents was judged as not acceptable.


Train Station, (High Risk Health and Safety to Public)
Whilst it is understandable why development around train stations is highlighted as the government’s favourable focal point for development moving forward, Mobberley’s railway station and track carry a unique set of public safety issues, that disqualify it as a realistic option.

Mobberley Station is a small village station, with limited facilities and parking, it has only one passenger train per hour each way, plus a heavy schedule of freight trains operating 24/7. There is a level crossing for light vehicular traffic, and signal box, which National rail deem appropriate to operate around the clock by human operators rather than via an automated system.

This line is also shared by pedestrians! as there are 5 public footpaths that cross the live railway track at 5 separate points, these are all unmanned pedestrian crossings, 3 of which are located within the hatched areas earmarked for development, all 5 points allow public access to walk directly on the track to cross to the other side. Thankfully these major hazards are seldom used currently, especially during the hours of darkness, as the area is sparsely populated, and the access points are not visible from the road, yet, location is identified through the sounding of train horns as each train approaches a footpath, (whilst this is essential under these circumstances, it does compound onto Airport generated noise for residents)

The development plan proposes to increase the local population, open up visibility of these dangerous crossings, encouraging a higher pedestrian footfall, whilst facilitating too, potential need for more vehicle and train traffic usage on the same live track, this is a recipe for disaster, creating significant risk to public safety.



Environmental issues, (Health and safety, Property damage and road traffic incidents)
Ground Structure and water course.
Mobberley stands primarily on Clay, which obviously expands and contracts in accordance with ground water conditions, making properties standing on it potentially susceptible to subsidence if over saturated, yet, many properties’ have stood strong under these conditions for hundreds of years (my own included) due to the lay of the land producing natural water run off channels, plus, plenty of thirsty trees, hedgerows and grass, disruption through development of this delicate eco system even on a small scale has huge impact on potential for flooding and damage to property.

An Example of this where CEC fought against and hold documents for, is during covid in 2020, a Broad oak Lane land owner decided to concrete over part of his agricultural field which was part of the green belt, in order to use the site as residential (the application was again refused at appeal, in part to protect the greenbelt yet predominantly on the grounds of the aircraft noise) however, the concrete laid of approx. three quarters of an acre, has caused huge impact on the area, whereby the natural watercourse has been disrupted and caused severe flooding to Broadoak Lane many times since it was laid, unfortunately, there has been numerous road traffic accidents at that point, on the back of the flooding and black ice conditions to follow. Broadoak Lane has been closed due to this many times since, however, Smith Lane is not a suitable diversion as Smith Lane narrows to single file use in several points and suffers in icy conditions, (point of reference, neither of these lanes are on the CEC de-icing route, neither lane have pedestrian footpaths for access to train station or the village centre).

Any potential development in this area, not only has high impact on its human residents, as this area is agricultural land, providing home and grazing to cattle, horses, foxes, rabbits, badgers and even deer and large populations of great Crested newts (which are protected), all of which are unaffected by the Aircraft
yet all will be greatly affected by removal of their natural habitat.

To Conclude
I trust Cheshire East will use this information to gather further evidence as a vital part of its due diligence, to show why so many health and safety issues associated with the current proposed development plan in Mobberley, especially in the Smith Lane and Broadoak Lane areas, is absolutely the worst area in the whole of Cheshire for any such development.

Ref: Cheshire East Overdevelopment Plan in Mobberley.


Dear Sir/Madam


Please accept this correspondence as formal objection to the Cheshire East plans for potential development in Mobberley, especially around the Smith Lane and Broadoak lane areas, the plan has major health and safety implications which I aim to highlight within this document.


This objection comes from a resident with over 30 years’ experience in aircraft operations at Manchester Airport, plus having lived (REDACTED) for over 25 years, gaining in depth local knowledge of living under a flight path, and local environment issues. I trust this experience, along with my understanding of planning through serving as local councillor on the Mobberley Parish Council planning committee for 16 years, qualifies me to speak frankly about how the proposed plans has direct impact on the health and safety of existing and potential new residents plus their property, making Mobberley (especially the Smith Lane/Broadoak Lane area) the most inappropriate area in the whole of Cheshire to develop.


Manchester Airport (High Risk Health and Safety to General Public)

Mobberley has, unlike anywhere else in Cheshire, both runways of Manchester International Airport located within its boundaries. Whilst residents residing under the ILS approach are greatly affected by aircraft arrival/departure operations. The Public safety Zone (PSZ) is a smaller area within the approach, which illustrates as funnels from the end of both runways, these areas are identified as most at risk of critical aircraft incident. These PSZ areas have strict restrictions in terms of planning and are NOT areas where any form of development should even be considered.
The PSZ’s for the two operating runways in Mobberley span across Smith Lane through the agricultural fields towards Broadoak Lane.
The areas adjacent to the PSZ also have their own set of restrictions, based primarily on reducing public dwell time, whereby residential property and areas of employment would generate significant public dwell time, should not permitted in this area. Moving outward of the adjacent areas further, in terms of planning, other factors need to take into consideration, solar panels or flood lighting, would not be permitted due pilot light and dazzle, a robust rubbish removal program would need to be in operation to prevent scavenger bird activity, endangering aircraft with bird strikes, unfortunately, this is not something CEC has managed to deliver to existing residents efficiently this summer.

In addition to planning restrictions regarding public safety, Manchester Airport also generates, with repetitive consistency, relentless noise of arriving and departing commercial aircraft thus causing major Mental Health impact for local residents through, the inability to sleep, hold an uninterrupted conversation, open windows, or enjoy outside space.

An excellent example of this can be found within your own documents, in the words of a CEC planning inspectorate, rejecting the planning appeal hearing by Harman group for residential dwellings on the Ilford’s site, the planned site, was not within in the PSZ, nor was it on land adjacent to it, yet the levels of aircraft noise and the damaging effect it would have for proposed residents was judged as not acceptable.


Train Station, (High Risk Health and Safety to Public)
Whilst it is understandable why development around train stations is highlighted as the government’s favourable focal point for development moving forward, Mobberley’s railway station and track carry a unique set of public safety issues, that disqualify it as a realistic option.

Mobberley Station is a small village station, with limited facilities and parking, it has only one passenger train per hour each way, plus a heavy schedule of freight trains operating 24/7. There is a level crossing for light vehicular traffic, and signal box, which National rail deem appropriate to operate around the clock by human operators rather than via an automated system.

This line is also shared by pedestrians! as there are 5 public footpaths that cross the live railway track at 5 separate points, these are all unmanned pedestrian crossings, 3 of which are located within the hatched areas earmarked for development, all 5 points allow public access to walk directly on the track to cross to the other side. Thankfully these major hazards are seldom used currently, especially during the hours of darkness, as the area is sparsely populated, and the access points are not visible from the road, yet, location is identified through the sounding of train horns as each train approaches a footpath, (whilst this is essential under these circumstances, it does compound onto Airport generated noise for residents)

The development plan proposes to increase the local population, open up visibility of these dangerous crossings, encouraging a higher pedestrian footfall, whilst facilitating too, potential need for more vehicle and train traffic usage on the same live track, this is a recipe for disaster, creating significant risk to public safety.



Environmental issues, (Health and safety, Property damage and road traffic incidents)
Ground Structure and water course.
Mobberley stands primarily on Clay, which obviously expands and contracts in accordance with ground water conditions, making properties standing on it potentially susceptible to subsidence if over saturated, yet, many properties’ have stood strong under these conditions for hundreds of years (my own included) due to the lay of the land producing natural water run off channels, plus, plenty of thirsty trees, hedgerows and grass, disruption through development of this delicate eco system even on a small scale has huge impact on potential for flooding and damage to property.

An Example of this where CEC fought against and hold documents for, is during covid in 2020, a Broad oak Lane land owner decided to concrete over part of his agricultural field which was part of the green belt, in order to use the site as residential (the application was again refused at appeal, in part to protect the greenbelt yet predominantly on the grounds of the aircraft noise) however, the concrete laid of approx. three quarters of an acre, has caused huge impact on the area, whereby the natural watercourse has been disrupted and caused severe flooding to Broadoak Lane many times since it was laid, unfortunately, there has been numerous road traffic accidents at that point, on the back of the flooding and black ice conditions to follow. Broadoak Lane has been closed due to this many times since, however, Smith Lane is not a suitable diversion as Smith Lane narrows to single file use in several points and suffers in icy conditions, (point of reference, neither of these lanes are on the CEC de-icing route, neither lane have pedestrian footpaths for access to train station or the village centre).

Any potential development in this area, not only has high impact on its human residents, as this area is agricultural land, providing home and grazing to cattle, horses, foxes, rabbits, badgers and even deer and large populations of great Crested newts (which are protected), all of which are unaffected by the Aircraft
yet all will be greatly affected by removal of their natural habitat.

To Conclude
I trust Cheshire East will use this information to gather further evidence as a vital part of its due diligence, to show why so many health and safety issues associated with the current proposed development plan in Mobberley, especially in the Smith Lane and Broadoak Lane areas, is absolutely the worst area in the whole of Cheshire for any such development.

Ref: Cheshire East Overdevelopment Plan in Mobberley.


Dear Sir/Madam


Please accept this correspondence as formal objection to the Cheshire East plans for potential development in Mobberley, especially around the Smith Lane and Broadoak lane areas, the plan has major health and safety implications which I aim to highlight within this document.


This objection comes from a resident with over 30 years’ experience in aircraft operations at Manchester Airport, plus having lived (REDACTED) for over 25 years, gaining in depth local knowledge of living under a flight path, and local environment issues. I trust this experience, along with my understanding of planning through serving as local councillor on the Mobberley Parish Council planning committee for 16 years, qualifies me to speak frankly about how the proposed plans has direct impact on the health and safety of existing and potential new residents plus their property, making Mobberley (especially the Smith Lane/Broadoak Lane area) the most inappropriate area in the whole of Cheshire to develop.


Manchester Airport (High Risk Health and Safety to General Public)

Mobberley has, unlike anywhere else in Cheshire, both runways of Manchester International Airport located within its boundaries. Whilst residents residing under the ILS approach are greatly affected by aircraft arrival/departure operations. The Public safety Zone (PSZ) is a smaller area within the approach, which illustrates as funnels from the end of both runways, these areas are identified as most at risk of critical aircraft incident. These PSZ areas have strict restrictions in terms of planning and are NOT areas where any form of development should even be considered.
The PSZ’s for the two operating runways in Mobberley span across Smith Lane through the agricultural fields towards Broadoak Lane.
The areas adjacent to the PSZ also have their own set of restrictions, based primarily on reducing public dwell time, whereby residential property and areas of employment would generate significant public dwell time, should not permitted in this area. Moving outward of the adjacent areas further, in terms of planning, other factors need to take into consideration, solar panels or flood lighting, would not be permitted due pilot light and dazzle, a robust rubbish removal program would need to be in operation to prevent scavenger bird activity, endangering aircraft with bird strikes, unfortunately, this is not something CEC has managed to deliver to existing residents efficiently this summer.

In addition to planning restrictions regarding public safety, Manchester Airport also generates, with repetitive consistency, relentless noise of arriving and departing commercial aircraft thus causing major Mental Health impact for local residents through, the inability to sleep, hold an uninterrupted conversation, open windows, or enjoy outside space.

An excellent example of this can be found within your own documents, in the words of a CEC planning inspectorate, rejecting the planning appeal hearing by Harman group for residential dwellings on the Ilford’s site, the planned site, was not within in the PSZ, nor was it on land adjacent to it, yet the levels of aircraft noise and the damaging effect it would have for proposed residents was judged as not acceptable.


Train Station, (High Risk Health and Safety to Public)
Whilst it is understandable why development around train stations is highlighted as the government’s favourable focal point for development moving forward, Mobberley’s railway station and track carry a unique set of public safety issues, that disqualify it as a realistic option.

Mobberley Station is a small village station, with limited facilities and parking, it has only one passenger train per hour each way, plus a heavy schedule of freight trains operating 24/7. There is a level crossing for light vehicular traffic, and signal box, which National rail deem appropriate to operate around the clock by human operators rather than via an automated system.

This line is also shared by pedestrians! as there are 5 public footpaths that cross the live railway track at 5 separate points, these are all unmanned pedestrian crossings, 3 of which are located within the hatched areas earmarked for development, all 5 points allow public access to walk directly on the track to cross to the other side. Thankfully these major hazards are seldom used currently, especially during the hours of darkness, as the area is sparsely populated, and the access points are not visible from the road, yet, location is identified through the sounding of train horns as each train approaches a footpath, (whilst this is essential under these circumstances, it does compound onto Airport generated noise for residents)

The development plan proposes to increase the local population, open up visibility of these dangerous crossings, encouraging a higher pedestrian footfall, whilst facilitating too, potential need for more vehicle and train traffic usage on the same live track, this is a recipe for disaster, creating significant risk to public safety.



Environmental issues, (Health and safety, Property damage and road traffic incidents)
Ground Structure and water course.
Mobberley stands primarily on Clay, which obviously expands and contracts in accordance with ground water conditions, making properties standing on it potentially susceptible to subsidence if over saturated, yet, many properties’ have stood strong under these conditions for hundreds of years (my own included) due to the lay of the land producing natural water run off channels, plus, plenty of thirsty trees, hedgerows and grass, disruption through development of this delicate eco system even on a small scale has huge impact on potential for flooding and damage to property.

An Example of this where CEC fought against and hold documents for, is during covid in 2020, a Broad oak Lane land owner decided to concrete over part of his agricultural field which was part of the green belt, in order to use the site as residential (the application was again refused at appeal, in part to protect the greenbelt yet predominantly on the grounds of the aircraft noise) however, the concrete laid of approx. three quarters of an acre, has caused huge impact on the area, whereby the natural watercourse has been disrupted and caused severe flooding to Broadoak Lane many times since it was laid, unfortunately, there has been numerous road traffic accidents at that point, on the back of the flooding and black ice conditions to follow. Broadoak Lane has been closed due to this many times since, however, Smith Lane is not a suitable diversion as Smith Lane narrows to single file use in several points and suffers in icy conditions, (point of reference, neither of these lanes are on the CEC de-icing route, neither lane have pedestrian footpaths for access to train station or the village centre).

Any potential development in this area, not only has high impact on its human residents, as this area is agricultural land, providing home and grazing to cattle, horses, foxes, rabbits, badgers and even deer and large populations of great Crested newts (which are protected), all of which are unaffected by the Aircraft
yet all will be greatly affected by removal of their natural habitat.

To Conclude
I trust Cheshire East will use this information to gather further evidence as a vital part of its due diligence, to show why so many health and safety issues associated with the current proposed development plan in Mobberley, especially in the Smith Lane and Broadoak Lane areas, is absolutely the worst area in the whole of Cheshire for any such development.