Local plan scoping consultation

I write to register my formal objection to the inclusion of the above submission in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) and to request that all 12 sites be excluded from further consideration in Cheshire East Council's emerging Local Plan.
Tatton Estates has submitted 291.03 hectares of agricultural land across Ashley Parish for consideration. At standard densities of 30 to 40 dwellings per hectare, this represents between 8,700 and 11,640 new homes. The promoter's own cover letter to the council, dated 31 March 2026, confirms the full ambition: 11,000 dwellings and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace. I am a local resident and I object to this submission in the strongest possible terms. The proposal would not deliver housing sensitively alongside an existing community. It would erase Ashley Parish.
I understand that the council cannot currently demonstrate a Five-Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS) and that this engages the tilted balance at paragraph 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). However, the tilted balance does not remove the explicit protections that national policy places on Green Belt land, Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land, and statutory environmental designations. Each of those protections applies to this submission. Taken together, they provide clear and compelling grounds for exclusion from the SHELAA, which I set out below.

Ground 1: Green Belt Designation and Failure of the Grey Belt Test
Ashley Parish is designated as wash-over Green Belt within the North Cheshire Green Belt, the most protective form of rural Green Belt classification. That designation was established to prevent the southward spread of the Manchester conurbation and to maintain the open land separating Greater Manchester settlements, including Hale, Hale Barns and Altrincham, from the Cheshire East communities of Mobberley and Knutsford. It serves that purpose today and it will serve it for future generations if the council applies the national framework correctly.
Green Belt boundaries may only be altered through a Local Plan review where exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated, and only after all other reasonable options have been considered. No such circumstances exist here. More fundamentally, the land fails the Grey Belt test. National policy allows Green Belt to be considered for release only where it is previously developed land or land that makes a negligible contribution to Green Belt purposes. Open, productive farmland in active agricultural use satisfies neither condition.
The submission conflicts with three of the five Green Belt purposes established by NPPF paragraph 143:
‒ Purpose (a) – Check unrestricted sprawl: Ashley forms the narrow green corridor preventing the Manchester conurbation from expanding southwards. Release of 291.03 hectares closes that corridor permanently.
‒ Purpose (b) – Prevent the merging of towns: Development at this scale would physically connect Greater Manchester's southern settlements to the Cheshire villages beyond, creating continuous urbanisation where open countryside currently exists.
‒ Purpose (c) – Safeguard the countryside from encroachment: This is working agricultural land. Including it in the SHELAA as available for development is the encroachment that Green Belt policy exists to prevent.
The council should not advance land through the SHELAA where Green Belt release requires exceptional circumstances that have not been demonstrated and where the Grey Belt test is not met. To do otherwise would prejudice the integrity of the Local Plan process.
Ground 2: Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land
Detailed soil data, including field-level sampling published as part of the HS2 Phase 2b Environmental Statement (document reference MA06), confirms that Ashley's farmland contains Grade 2 Best and Most Versatile (BMV) land on lighter Wick 1 soils near the river terraces, and Subgrade 3a BMV land where topsoil consists of medium clay loam over Salop boulder clay.
NPPF paragraph 180(b) requires that significant weight be given to the economic and other benefits of BMV agricultural land (Grades 1, 2 and 3a). The permanent loss of high-grade farmland to greenfield development is not a routine planning trade-off. It is an irreversible act that national policy requires local authorities to avoid unless the need for development can be shown to be sufficiently compelling to outweigh those benefits. No such case has been made here, and none credibly could be on land of this quality and extent.
Food security is a national priority. The protection of Grades 2 and 3a farmland is a substantive policy safeguard, not a procedural formality. The council must apply it at the SHELAA stage.
Ground 3: Statutory Environmental Designations and Ecological Constraints
The submission area and its surroundings are subject to multiple environmental designations, each of which represents a significant constraint on development:
a. Cotterill Clough Nature Reserve is a 14-acre SSSI managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust and lies immediately adjacent to the submission area. The council carries a legal duty under section 28G of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to take reasonable steps to further the conservation and enhancement of SSSIs. Development of this scale, generating noise, light pollution, surface water runoff and sustained recreational pressure, would cause serious and lasting harm to this designated habitat. Advancing the submission is inconsistent with that statutory duty.
b. The land falls within two local landscape designations: the Bollin Valley and Parklands Local Landscape Designation and the Rostherne/Tatton Park Local Landscape Designation. The Bollin Valley Partnership Area provides active protection to the River Bollin corridor running directly through Ashley Parish. These designations are not background detail. They reflect the genuine environmental quality of this landscape and the need to protect it from exactly this kind of large-scale greenfield development.
c. The area contains documented habitat corridors for bats, owls, badgers and Great Crested Newts, all carrying full legal protection under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Protected woodlands include Sunbank Wood, Hancock's Banks, Ryecroft Covert, Lamb's Covert, Hardy's Covert and Jackson's Bank. Comprehensive Tree Preservation Orders cover historic field margins and estate tree belts across the area. Development of 291.03 hectares would destroy these habitats. A SHELAA assessment that treats this land as available without addressing these constraints has no legal credibility.
Ground 4: Heritage Assets and the Setting of Listed Buildings
Ashley Parish contains 19 Grade II listed buildings whose open countryside settings are legally protected from harmful development. Section 66 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires the council to have special regard to the desirability of preserving those settings. The courts have confirmed that this duty imposes a strong presumption against harm, one that is not simply another weight in the planning balance.
Ashley Hall itself is of exceptional heritage significance, encompassing the remains of Roman ironworks, a 13th-century hunting lodge, the 1490 hall associated with Mary Queen of Scots, and historic grounds connected to the Brereton family. The 12th-century fortification near Castle Mill Farm, The Rookery, and the Arts and Crafts house known as Midways add further weight to a heritage landscape of rare depth and integrity. The historic field patterns, estate boundaries and ancient hedgerows associated with the Tatton Estate complete a coherent historic landscape whose character cannot survive development at this scale.
Ground 5: Infrastructure Incapacity
The submission is not deliverable. The infrastructure constraints affecting Ashley Parish are not matters to be resolved through planning conditions or developer contributions. They are fixed physical and operational limitations:
‒ Rail: Ashley station currently provides one train per hour in each direction. When the new Cheadle station opens, which has planning permission and is fully funded, Ashley's service will reduce to one train every two hours. A settlement of up to 11,640 dwellings cannot be served by a two-hourly rail service. Nor can a fraction of that number be served sustainably.
‒ Highways: Local access depends on narrow rural lanes with restricted-height railway bridges and severe physical pinch points converging on the A538 and M56, both of which are already at capacity during peak periods. There is no viable highway solution at proportionate cost.
‒ Manchester Airport: The submission land falls within operational flight path noise contours and bird-strike hazard safety zones associated with Manchester Airport. High-density residential development within these zones is incompatible with airport safety requirements.
‒ Drainage and utilities: The area lacks deep sewer connections, adequate grid capacity and surface water drainage infrastructure. Surface water flood risk to the River Bollin catchment is significant. Development of this scale would require entirely new utility infrastructure whose deliverability has not been assessed.
A site that cannot be delivered within the plan period cannot properly be included in the SHELAA as available housing land. The council must assess these constraints before, not after, making its inclusion decision.
Ground 6: The Promoter's Public Statements Contradict the Formal Submission
Tatton Estates has publicly described community concerns about 11,000 dwellings as scaremongering. The promoter's own cover letter to Cheshire East, dated 31 March 2026, says otherwise. That letter formally confirms that sites capable of delivering 11,000 homes and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace remain available; that the sites "are available, suitable, achievable and deliverable for the proposed uses"; and that "for the avoidance of doubt, all of the sites submitted to the 2024 Call for Sites exercise are still available to meet more of Cheshire East's housing needs during and beyond this plan period."
The council must assess the submission as formally submitted. The 31 March 2026 cover letter is part of the public record. The proposal before the council is for 291.03 hectares capable of 11,000 dwellings, and that is what must be tested against all material planning constraints.
The Cumulative Case for Exclusion
Each ground above is independently sufficient. This is wash-over Green Belt land that fails the Grey Belt test, comprising Grade 2 and Subgrade 3a BMV agricultural soil in active productive use, adjacent to a SSSI, within two local landscape designations, containing documented protected species habitats, encircled by 19 Grade II listed buildings whose settings are legally protected, constrained by infrastructure that cannot support development within any plan period, and promoted on the basis of ambitions that the promoter has sought to deny publicly while formally confirming to the council.
NPPF paragraph 11(d)(i) is clear: the tilted balance does not apply where specific policies in the framework indicate that development should be restricted. Green Belt, BMV land protection and statutory environmental designations are precisely those policies. The council's 5YHLS deficit does not require it to include this land in the SHELAA. It requires the council to apply national policy correctly and to build a Local Plan evidence base that reflects those protections honestly
I request that Cheshire East Council:
‒ Exclude all 12 Ashley Parish sites submitted by Tatton Estates from the SHELAA on the grounds set out in this letter.
‒ Confirm in writing that the Green Belt designation, BMV agricultural land, SSSI adjacency, heritage setting obligations and infrastructure constraints have each been assessed as material constraints capable of preventing inclusion.
‒ Publish its SHELAA methodology and make it available for public comment before site assessments are finalised.
‒ Give full weight in the emerging Local Plan to the cumulative planning harm that development of any part of this 291.03-hectare submission would cause.
I would be grateful for confirmation that this representation has been formally registered.

I write to register my formal objection to the inclusion of the above submission in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) and to request that all 12 sites be excluded from further consideration in Cheshire East Council's emerging Local Plan.
Tatton Estates has submitted 291.03 hectares of agricultural land across Ashley Parish for consideration. At standard densities of 30 to 40 dwellings per hectare, this represents between 8,700 and 11,640 new homes. The promoter's own cover letter to the council, dated 31 March 2026, confirms the full ambition: 11,000 dwellings and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace. I am a local resident and I object to this submission in the strongest possible terms. The proposal would not deliver housing sensitively alongside an existing community. It would erase Ashley Parish.
I understand that the council cannot currently demonstrate a Five-Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS) and that this engages the tilted balance at paragraph 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). However, the tilted balance does not remove the explicit protections that national policy places on Green Belt land, Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land, and statutory environmental designations. Each of those protections applies to this submission. Taken together, they provide clear and compelling grounds for exclusion from the SHELAA, which I set out below.

Ground 1: Green Belt Designation and Failure of the Grey Belt Test
Ashley Parish is designated as wash-over Green Belt within the North Cheshire Green Belt, the most protective form of rural Green Belt classification. That designation was established to prevent the southward spread of the Manchester conurbation and to maintain the open land separating Greater Manchester settlements, including Hale, Hale Barns and Altrincham, from the Cheshire East communities of Mobberley and Knutsford. It serves that purpose today and it will serve it for future generations if the council applies the national framework correctly.
Green Belt boundaries may only be altered through a Local Plan review where exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated, and only after all other reasonable options have been considered. No such circumstances exist here. More fundamentally, the land fails the Grey Belt test. National policy allows Green Belt to be considered for release only where it is previously developed land or land that makes a negligible contribution to Green Belt purposes. Open, productive farmland in active agricultural use satisfies neither condition.
The submission conflicts with three of the five Green Belt purposes established by NPPF paragraph 143:
‒ Purpose (a) – Check unrestricted sprawl: Ashley forms the narrow green corridor preventing the Manchester conurbation from expanding southwards. Release of 291.03 hectares closes that corridor permanently.
‒ Purpose (b) – Prevent the merging of towns: Development at this scale would physically connect Greater Manchester's southern settlements to the Cheshire villages beyond, creating continuous urbanisation where open countryside currently exists.
‒ Purpose (c) – Safeguard the countryside from encroachment: This is working agricultural land. Including it in the SHELAA as available for development is the encroachment that Green Belt policy exists to prevent.
The council should not advance land through the SHELAA where Green Belt release requires exceptional circumstances that have not been demonstrated and where the Grey Belt test is not met. To do otherwise would prejudice the integrity of the Local Plan process.
Ground 2: Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land
Detailed soil data, including field-level sampling published as part of the HS2 Phase 2b Environmental Statement (document reference MA06), confirms that Ashley's farmland contains Grade 2 Best and Most Versatile (BMV) land on lighter Wick 1 soils near the river terraces, and Subgrade 3a BMV land where topsoil consists of medium clay loam over Salop boulder clay.
NPPF paragraph 180(b) requires that significant weight be given to the economic and other benefits of BMV agricultural land (Grades 1, 2 and 3a). The permanent loss of high-grade farmland to greenfield development is not a routine planning trade-off. It is an irreversible act that national policy requires local authorities to avoid unless the need for development can be shown to be sufficiently compelling to outweigh those benefits. No such case has been made here, and none credibly could be on land of this quality and extent.
Food security is a national priority. The protection of Grades 2 and 3a farmland is a substantive policy safeguard, not a procedural formality. The council must apply it at the SHELAA stage.
Ground 3: Statutory Environmental Designations and Ecological Constraints
The submission area and its surroundings are subject to multiple environmental designations, each of which represents a significant constraint on development:
a. Cotterill Clough Nature Reserve is a 14-acre SSSI managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust and lies immediately adjacent to the submission area. The council carries a legal duty under section 28G of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to take reasonable steps to further the conservation and enhancement of SSSIs. Development of this scale, generating noise, light pollution, surface water runoff and sustained recreational pressure, would cause serious and lasting harm to this designated habitat. Advancing the submission is inconsistent with that statutory duty.
b. The land falls within two local landscape designations: the Bollin Valley and Parklands Local Landscape Designation and the Rostherne/Tatton Park Local Landscape Designation. The Bollin Valley Partnership Area provides active protection to the River Bollin corridor running directly through Ashley Parish. These designations are not background detail. They reflect the genuine environmental quality of this landscape and the need to protect it from exactly this kind of large-scale greenfield development.
c. The area contains documented habitat corridors for bats, owls, badgers and Great Crested Newts, all carrying full legal protection under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Protected woodlands include Sunbank Wood, Hancock's Banks, Ryecroft Covert, Lamb's Covert, Hardy's Covert and Jackson's Bank. Comprehensive Tree Preservation Orders cover historic field margins and estate tree belts across the area. Development of 291.03 hectares would destroy these habitats. A SHELAA assessment that treats this land as available without addressing these constraints has no legal credibility.
Ground 4: Heritage Assets and the Setting of Listed Buildings
Ashley Parish contains 19 Grade II listed buildings whose open countryside settings are legally protected from harmful development. Section 66 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires the council to have special regard to the desirability of preserving those settings. The courts have confirmed that this duty imposes a strong presumption against harm, one that is not simply another weight in the planning balance.
Ashley Hall itself is of exceptional heritage significance, encompassing the remains of Roman ironworks, a 13th-century hunting lodge, the 1490 hall associated with Mary Queen of Scots, and historic grounds connected to the Brereton family. The 12th-century fortification near Castle Mill Farm, The Rookery, and the Arts and Crafts house known as Midways add further weight to a heritage landscape of rare depth and integrity. The historic field patterns, estate boundaries and ancient hedgerows associated with the Tatton Estate complete a coherent historic landscape whose character cannot survive development at this scale.
Ground 5: Infrastructure Incapacity
The submission is not deliverable. The infrastructure constraints affecting Ashley Parish are not matters to be resolved through planning conditions or developer contributions. They are fixed physical and operational limitations:
‒ Rail: Ashley station currently provides one train per hour in each direction. When the new Cheadle station opens, which has planning permission and is fully funded, Ashley's service will reduce to one train every two hours. A settlement of up to 11,640 dwellings cannot be served by a two-hourly rail service. Nor can a fraction of that number be served sustainably.
‒ Highways: Local access depends on narrow rural lanes with restricted-height railway bridges and severe physical pinch points converging on the A538 and M56, both of which are already at capacity during peak periods. There is no viable highway solution at proportionate cost.
‒ Manchester Airport: The submission land falls within operational flight path noise contours and bird-strike hazard safety zones associated with Manchester Airport. High-density residential development within these zones is incompatible with airport safety requirements.
‒ Drainage and utilities: The area lacks deep sewer connections, adequate grid capacity and surface water drainage infrastructure. Surface water flood risk to the River Bollin catchment is significant. Development of this scale would require entirely new utility infrastructure whose deliverability has not been assessed.
A site that cannot be delivered within the plan period cannot properly be included in the SHELAA as available housing land. The council must assess these constraints before, not after, making its inclusion decision.
Ground 6: The Promoter's Public Statements Contradict the Formal Submission
Tatton Estates has publicly described community concerns about 11,000 dwellings as scaremongering. The promoter's own cover letter to Cheshire East, dated 31 March 2026, says otherwise. That letter formally confirms that sites capable of delivering 11,000 homes and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace remain available; that the sites "are available, suitable, achievable and deliverable for the proposed uses"; and that "for the avoidance of doubt, all of the sites submitted to the 2024 Call for Sites exercise are still available to meet more of Cheshire East's housing needs during and beyond this plan period."
The council must assess the submission as formally submitted. The 31 March 2026 cover letter is part of the public record. The proposal before the council is for 291.03 hectares capable of 11,000 dwellings, and that is what must be tested against all material planning constraints.
The Cumulative Case for Exclusion
Each ground above is independently sufficient. This is wash-over Green Belt land that fails the Grey Belt test, comprising Grade 2 and Subgrade 3a BMV agricultural soil in active productive use, adjacent to a SSSI, within two local landscape designations, containing documented protected species habitats, encircled by 19 Grade II listed buildings whose settings are legally protected, constrained by infrastructure that cannot support development within any plan period, and promoted on the basis of ambitions that the promoter has sought to deny publicly while formally confirming to the council.
NPPF paragraph 11(d)(i) is clear: the tilted balance does not apply where specific policies in the framework indicate that development should be restricted. Green Belt, BMV land protection and statutory environmental designations are precisely those policies. The council's 5YHLS deficit does not require it to include this land in the SHELAA. It requires the council to apply national policy correctly and to build a Local Plan evidence base that reflects those protections honestly
I request that Cheshire East Council:
‒ Exclude all 12 Ashley Parish sites submitted by Tatton Estates from the SHELAA on the grounds set out in this letter.
‒ Confirm in writing that the Green Belt designation, BMV agricultural land, SSSI adjacency, heritage setting obligations and infrastructure constraints have each been assessed as material constraints capable of preventing inclusion.
‒ Publish its SHELAA methodology and make it available for public comment before site assessments are finalised.
‒ Give full weight in the emerging Local Plan to the cumulative planning harm that development of any part of this 291.03-hectare submission would cause.
I would be grateful for confirmation that this representation has been formally registered.

I write to register my formal objection to the inclusion of the above submission in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) and to request that all 12 sites be excluded from further consideration in Cheshire East Council's emerging Local Plan.
Tatton Estates has submitted 291.03 hectares of agricultural land across Ashley Parish for consideration. At standard densities of 30 to 40 dwellings per hectare, this represents between 8,700 and 11,640 new homes. The promoter's own cover letter to the council, dated 31 March 2026, confirms the full ambition: 11,000 dwellings and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace. I am a local resident and I object to this submission in the strongest possible terms. The proposal would not deliver housing sensitively alongside an existing community. It would erase Ashley Parish.
I understand that the council cannot currently demonstrate a Five-Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS) and that this engages the tilted balance at paragraph 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). However, the tilted balance does not remove the explicit protections that national policy places on Green Belt land, Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land, and statutory environmental designations. Each of those protections applies to this submission. Taken together, they provide clear and compelling grounds for exclusion from the SHELAA, which I set out below.

Ground 1: Green Belt Designation and Failure of the Grey Belt Test
Ashley Parish is designated as wash-over Green Belt within the North Cheshire Green Belt, the most protective form of rural Green Belt classification. That designation was established to prevent the southward spread of the Manchester conurbation and to maintain the open land separating Greater Manchester settlements, including Hale, Hale Barns and Altrincham, from the Cheshire East communities of Mobberley and Knutsford. It serves that purpose today and it will serve it for future generations if the council applies the national framework correctly.
Green Belt boundaries may only be altered through a Local Plan review where exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated, and only after all other reasonable options have been considered. No such circumstances exist here. More fundamentally, the land fails the Grey Belt test. National policy allows Green Belt to be considered for release only where it is previously developed land or land that makes a negligible contribution to Green Belt purposes. Open, productive farmland in active agricultural use satisfies neither condition.
The submission conflicts with three of the five Green Belt purposes established by NPPF paragraph 143:
‒ Purpose (a) – Check unrestricted sprawl: Ashley forms the narrow green corridor preventing the Manchester conurbation from expanding southwards. Release of 291.03 hectares closes that corridor permanently.
‒ Purpose (b) – Prevent the merging of towns: Development at this scale would physically connect Greater Manchester's southern settlements to the Cheshire villages beyond, creating continuous urbanisation where open countryside currently exists.
‒ Purpose (c) – Safeguard the countryside from encroachment: This is working agricultural land. Including it in the SHELAA as available for development is the encroachment that Green Belt policy exists to prevent.
The council should not advance land through the SHELAA where Green Belt release requires exceptional circumstances that have not been demonstrated and where the Grey Belt test is not met. To do otherwise would prejudice the integrity of the Local Plan process.
Ground 2: Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land
Detailed soil data, including field-level sampling published as part of the HS2 Phase 2b Environmental Statement (document reference MA06), confirms that Ashley's farmland contains Grade 2 Best and Most Versatile (BMV) land on lighter Wick 1 soils near the river terraces, and Subgrade 3a BMV land where topsoil consists of medium clay loam over Salop boulder clay.
NPPF paragraph 180(b) requires that significant weight be given to the economic and other benefits of BMV agricultural land (Grades 1, 2 and 3a). The permanent loss of high-grade farmland to greenfield development is not a routine planning trade-off. It is an irreversible act that national policy requires local authorities to avoid unless the need for development can be shown to be sufficiently compelling to outweigh those benefits. No such case has been made here, and none credibly could be on land of this quality and extent.
Food security is a national priority. The protection of Grades 2 and 3a farmland is a substantive policy safeguard, not a procedural formality. The council must apply it at the SHELAA stage.
Ground 3: Statutory Environmental Designations and Ecological Constraints
The submission area and its surroundings are subject to multiple environmental designations, each of which represents a significant constraint on development:
a. Cotterill Clough Nature Reserve is a 14-acre SSSI managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust and lies immediately adjacent to the submission area. The council carries a legal duty under section 28G of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to take reasonable steps to further the conservation and enhancement of SSSIs. Development of this scale, generating noise, light pollution, surface water runoff and sustained recreational pressure, would cause serious and lasting harm to this designated habitat. Advancing the submission is inconsistent with that statutory duty.
b. The land falls within two local landscape designations: the Bollin Valley and Parklands Local Landscape Designation and the Rostherne/Tatton Park Local Landscape Designation. The Bollin Valley Partnership Area provides active protection to the River Bollin corridor running directly through Ashley Parish. These designations are not background detail. They reflect the genuine environmental quality of this landscape and the need to protect it from exactly this kind of large-scale greenfield development.
c. The area contains documented habitat corridors for bats, owls, badgers and Great Crested Newts, all carrying full legal protection under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Protected woodlands include Sunbank Wood, Hancock's Banks, Ryecroft Covert, Lamb's Covert, Hardy's Covert and Jackson's Bank. Comprehensive Tree Preservation Orders cover historic field margins and estate tree belts across the area. Development of 291.03 hectares would destroy these habitats. A SHELAA assessment that treats this land as available without addressing these constraints has no legal credibility.
Ground 4: Heritage Assets and the Setting of Listed Buildings
Ashley Parish contains 19 Grade II listed buildings whose open countryside settings are legally protected from harmful development. Section 66 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires the council to have special regard to the desirability of preserving those settings. The courts have confirmed that this duty imposes a strong presumption against harm, one that is not simply another weight in the planning balance.
Ashley Hall itself is of exceptional heritage significance, encompassing the remains of Roman ironworks, a 13th-century hunting lodge, the 1490 hall associated with Mary Queen of Scots, and historic grounds connected to the Brereton family. The 12th-century fortification near Castle Mill Farm, The Rookery, and the Arts and Crafts house known as Midways add further weight to a heritage landscape of rare depth and integrity. The historic field patterns, estate boundaries and ancient hedgerows associated with the Tatton Estate complete a coherent historic landscape whose character cannot survive development at this scale.
Ground 5: Infrastructure Incapacity
The submission is not deliverable. The infrastructure constraints affecting Ashley Parish are not matters to be resolved through planning conditions or developer contributions. They are fixed physical and operational limitations:
‒ Rail: Ashley station currently provides one train per hour in each direction. When the new Cheadle station opens, which has planning permission and is fully funded, Ashley's service will reduce to one train every two hours. A settlement of up to 11,640 dwellings cannot be served by a two-hourly rail service. Nor can a fraction of that number be served sustainably.
‒ Highways: Local access depends on narrow rural lanes with restricted-height railway bridges and severe physical pinch points converging on the A538 and M56, both of which are already at capacity during peak periods. There is no viable highway solution at proportionate cost.
‒ Manchester Airport: The submission land falls within operational flight path noise contours and bird-strike hazard safety zones associated with Manchester Airport. High-density residential development within these zones is incompatible with airport safety requirements.
‒ Drainage and utilities: The area lacks deep sewer connections, adequate grid capacity and surface water drainage infrastructure. Surface water flood risk to the River Bollin catchment is significant. Development of this scale would require entirely new utility infrastructure whose deliverability has not been assessed.
A site that cannot be delivered within the plan period cannot properly be included in the SHELAA as available housing land. The council must assess these constraints before, not after, making its inclusion decision.
Ground 6: The Promoter's Public Statements Contradict the Formal Submission
Tatton Estates has publicly described community concerns about 11,000 dwellings as scaremongering. The promoter's own cover letter to Cheshire East, dated 31 March 2026, says otherwise. That letter formally confirms that sites capable of delivering 11,000 homes and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace remain available; that the sites "are available, suitable, achievable and deliverable for the proposed uses"; and that "for the avoidance of doubt, all of the sites submitted to the 2024 Call for Sites exercise are still available to meet more of Cheshire East's housing needs during and beyond this plan period."
The council must assess the submission as formally submitted. The 31 March 2026 cover letter is part of the public record. The proposal before the council is for 291.03 hectares capable of 11,000 dwellings, and that is what must be tested against all material planning constraints.
The Cumulative Case for Exclusion
Each ground above is independently sufficient. This is wash-over Green Belt land that fails the Grey Belt test, comprising Grade 2 and Subgrade 3a BMV agricultural soil in active productive use, adjacent to a SSSI, within two local landscape designations, containing documented protected species habitats, encircled by 19 Grade II listed buildings whose settings are legally protected, constrained by infrastructure that cannot support development within any plan period, and promoted on the basis of ambitions that the promoter has sought to deny publicly while formally confirming to the council.
NPPF paragraph 11(d)(i) is clear: the tilted balance does not apply where specific policies in the framework indicate that development should be restricted. Green Belt, BMV land protection and statutory environmental designations are precisely those policies. The council's 5YHLS deficit does not require it to include this land in the SHELAA. It requires the council to apply national policy correctly and to build a Local Plan evidence base that reflects those protections honestly
I request that Cheshire East Council:
‒ Exclude all 12 Ashley Parish sites submitted by Tatton Estates from the SHELAA on the grounds set out in this letter.
‒ Confirm in writing that the Green Belt designation, BMV agricultural land, SSSI adjacency, heritage setting obligations and infrastructure constraints have each been assessed as material constraints capable of preventing inclusion.
‒ Publish its SHELAA methodology and make it available for public comment before site assessments are finalised.
‒ Give full weight in the emerging Local Plan to the cumulative planning harm that development of any part of this 291.03-hectare submission would cause.
I would be grateful for confirmation that this representation has been formally registered.

I write to register my formal objection to the inclusion of the above submission in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) and to request that all 12 sites be excluded from further consideration in Cheshire East Council's emerging Local Plan.
Tatton Estates has submitted 291.03 hectares of agricultural land across Ashley Parish for consideration. At standard densities of 30 to 40 dwellings per hectare, this represents between 8,700 and 11,640 new homes. The promoter's own cover letter to the council, dated 31 March 2026, confirms the full ambition: 11,000 dwellings and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace. I am a local resident and I object to this submission in the strongest possible terms. The proposal would not deliver housing sensitively alongside an existing community. It would erase Ashley Parish.
I understand that the council cannot currently demonstrate a Five-Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS) and that this engages the tilted balance at paragraph 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). However, the tilted balance does not remove the explicit protections that national policy places on Green Belt land, Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land, and statutory environmental designations. Each of those protections applies to this submission. Taken together, they provide clear and compelling grounds for exclusion from the SHELAA, which I set out below.

Ground 1: Green Belt Designation and Failure of the Grey Belt Test
Ashley Parish is designated as wash-over Green Belt within the North Cheshire Green Belt, the most protective form of rural Green Belt classification. That designation was established to prevent the southward spread of the Manchester conurbation and to maintain the open land separating Greater Manchester settlements, including Hale, Hale Barns and Altrincham, from the Cheshire East communities of Mobberley and Knutsford. It serves that purpose today and it will serve it for future generations if the council applies the national framework correctly.
Green Belt boundaries may only be altered through a Local Plan review where exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated, and only after all other reasonable options have been considered. No such circumstances exist here. More fundamentally, the land fails the Grey Belt test. National policy allows Green Belt to be considered for release only where it is previously developed land or land that makes a negligible contribution to Green Belt purposes. Open, productive farmland in active agricultural use satisfies neither condition.
The submission conflicts with three of the five Green Belt purposes established by NPPF paragraph 143:
‒ Purpose (a) – Check unrestricted sprawl: Ashley forms the narrow green corridor preventing the Manchester conurbation from expanding southwards. Release of 291.03 hectares closes that corridor permanently.
‒ Purpose (b) – Prevent the merging of towns: Development at this scale would physically connect Greater Manchester's southern settlements to the Cheshire villages beyond, creating continuous urbanisation where open countryside currently exists.
‒ Purpose (c) – Safeguard the countryside from encroachment: This is working agricultural land. Including it in the SHELAA as available for development is the encroachment that Green Belt policy exists to prevent.
The council should not advance land through the SHELAA where Green Belt release requires exceptional circumstances that have not been demonstrated and where the Grey Belt test is not met. To do otherwise would prejudice the integrity of the Local Plan process.
Ground 2: Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land
Detailed soil data, including field-level sampling published as part of the HS2 Phase 2b Environmental Statement (document reference MA06), confirms that Ashley's farmland contains Grade 2 Best and Most Versatile (BMV) land on lighter Wick 1 soils near the river terraces, and Subgrade 3a BMV land where topsoil consists of medium clay loam over Salop boulder clay.
NPPF paragraph 180(b) requires that significant weight be given to the economic and other benefits of BMV agricultural land (Grades 1, 2 and 3a). The permanent loss of high-grade farmland to greenfield development is not a routine planning trade-off. It is an irreversible act that national policy requires local authorities to avoid unless the need for development can be shown to be sufficiently compelling to outweigh those benefits. No such case has been made here, and none credibly could be on land of this quality and extent.
Food security is a national priority. The protection of Grades 2 and 3a farmland is a substantive policy safeguard, not a procedural formality. The council must apply it at the SHELAA stage.
Ground 3: Statutory Environmental Designations and Ecological Constraints
The submission area and its surroundings are subject to multiple environmental designations, each of which represents a significant constraint on development:
a. Cotterill Clough Nature Reserve is a 14-acre SSSI managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust and lies immediately adjacent to the submission area. The council carries a legal duty under section 28G of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to take reasonable steps to further the conservation and enhancement of SSSIs. Development of this scale, generating noise, light pollution, surface water runoff and sustained recreational pressure, would cause serious and lasting harm to this designated habitat. Advancing the submission is inconsistent with that statutory duty.
b. The land falls within two local landscape designations: the Bollin Valley and Parklands Local Landscape Designation and the Rostherne/Tatton Park Local Landscape Designation. The Bollin Valley Partnership Area provides active protection to the River Bollin corridor running directly through Ashley Parish. These designations are not background detail. They reflect the genuine environmental quality of this landscape and the need to protect it from exactly this kind of large-scale greenfield development.
c. The area contains documented habitat corridors for bats, owls, badgers and Great Crested Newts, all carrying full legal protection under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Protected woodlands include Sunbank Wood, Hancock's Banks, Ryecroft Covert, Lamb's Covert, Hardy's Covert and Jackson's Bank. Comprehensive Tree Preservation Orders cover historic field margins and estate tree belts across the area. Development of 291.03 hectares would destroy these habitats. A SHELAA assessment that treats this land as available without addressing these constraints has no legal credibility.
Ground 4: Heritage Assets and the Setting of Listed Buildings
Ashley Parish contains 19 Grade II listed buildings whose open countryside settings are legally protected from harmful development. Section 66 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires the council to have special regard to the desirability of preserving those settings. The courts have confirmed that this duty imposes a strong presumption against harm, one that is not simply another weight in the planning balance.
Ashley Hall itself is of exceptional heritage significance, encompassing the remains of Roman ironworks, a 13th-century hunting lodge, the 1490 hall associated with Mary Queen of Scots, and historic grounds connected to the Brereton family. The 12th-century fortification near Castle Mill Farm, The Rookery, and the Arts and Crafts house known as Midways add further weight to a heritage landscape of rare depth and integrity. The historic field patterns, estate boundaries and ancient hedgerows associated with the Tatton Estate complete a coherent historic landscape whose character cannot survive development at this scale.
Ground 5: Infrastructure Incapacity
The submission is not deliverable. The infrastructure constraints affecting Ashley Parish are not matters to be resolved through planning conditions or developer contributions. They are fixed physical and operational limitations:
‒ Rail: Ashley station currently provides one train per hour in each direction. When the new Cheadle station opens, which has planning permission and is fully funded, Ashley's service will reduce to one train every two hours. A settlement of up to 11,640 dwellings cannot be served by a two-hourly rail service. Nor can a fraction of that number be served sustainably.
‒ Highways: Local access depends on narrow rural lanes with restricted-height railway bridges and severe physical pinch points converging on the A538 and M56, both of which are already at capacity during peak periods. There is no viable highway solution at proportionate cost.
‒ Manchester Airport: The submission land falls within operational flight path noise contours and bird-strike hazard safety zones associated with Manchester Airport. High-density residential development within these zones is incompatible with airport safety requirements.
‒ Drainage and utilities: The area lacks deep sewer connections, adequate grid capacity and surface water drainage infrastructure. Surface water flood risk to the River Bollin catchment is significant. Development of this scale would require entirely new utility infrastructure whose deliverability has not been assessed.
A site that cannot be delivered within the plan period cannot properly be included in the SHELAA as available housing land. The council must assess these constraints before, not after, making its inclusion decision.
Ground 6: The Promoter's Public Statements Contradict the Formal Submission
Tatton Estates has publicly described community concerns about 11,000 dwellings as scaremongering. The promoter's own cover letter to Cheshire East, dated 31 March 2026, says otherwise. That letter formally confirms that sites capable of delivering 11,000 homes and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace remain available; that the sites "are available, suitable, achievable and deliverable for the proposed uses"; and that "for the avoidance of doubt, all of the sites submitted to the 2024 Call for Sites exercise are still available to meet more of Cheshire East's housing needs during and beyond this plan period."
The council must assess the submission as formally submitted. The 31 March 2026 cover letter is part of the public record. The proposal before the council is for 291.03 hectares capable of 11,000 dwellings, and that is what must be tested against all material planning constraints.
The Cumulative Case for Exclusion
Each ground above is independently sufficient. This is wash-over Green Belt land that fails the Grey Belt test, comprising Grade 2 and Subgrade 3a BMV agricultural soil in active productive use, adjacent to a SSSI, within two local landscape designations, containing documented protected species habitats, encircled by 19 Grade II listed buildings whose settings are legally protected, constrained by infrastructure that cannot support development within any plan period, and promoted on the basis of ambitions that the promoter has sought to deny publicly while formally confirming to the council.
NPPF paragraph 11(d)(i) is clear: the tilted balance does not apply where specific policies in the framework indicate that development should be restricted. Green Belt, BMV land protection and statutory environmental designations are precisely those policies. The council's 5YHLS deficit does not require it to include this land in the SHELAA. It requires the council to apply national policy correctly and to build a Local Plan evidence base that reflects those protections honestly
I request that Cheshire East Council:
‒ Exclude all 12 Ashley Parish sites submitted by Tatton Estates from the SHELAA on the grounds set out in this letter.
‒ Confirm in writing that the Green Belt designation, BMV agricultural land, SSSI adjacency, heritage setting obligations and infrastructure constraints have each been assessed as material constraints capable of preventing inclusion.
‒ Publish its SHELAA methodology and make it available for public comment before site assessments are finalised.
‒ Give full weight in the emerging Local Plan to the cumulative planning harm that development of any part of this 291.03-hectare submission would cause.
I would be grateful for confirmation that this representation has been formally registered.

I write to register my formal objection to the inclusion of the above submission in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) and to request that all 12 sites be excluded from further consideration in Cheshire East Council's emerging Local Plan.
Tatton Estates has submitted 291.03 hectares of agricultural land across Ashley Parish for consideration. At standard densities of 30 to 40 dwellings per hectare, this represents between 8,700 and 11,640 new homes. The promoter's own cover letter to the council, dated 31 March 2026, confirms the full ambition: 11,000 dwellings and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace. I am a local resident and I object to this submission in the strongest possible terms. The proposal would not deliver housing sensitively alongside an existing community. It would erase Ashley Parish.
I understand that the council cannot currently demonstrate a Five-Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS) and that this engages the tilted balance at paragraph 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). However, the tilted balance does not remove the explicit protections that national policy places on Green Belt land, Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land, and statutory environmental designations. Each of those protections applies to this submission. Taken together, they provide clear and compelling grounds for exclusion from the SHELAA, which I set out below.

Ground 1: Green Belt Designation and Failure of the Grey Belt Test
Ashley Parish is designated as wash-over Green Belt within the North Cheshire Green Belt, the most protective form of rural Green Belt classification. That designation was established to prevent the southward spread of the Manchester conurbation and to maintain the open land separating Greater Manchester settlements, including Hale, Hale Barns and Altrincham, from the Cheshire East communities of Mobberley and Knutsford. It serves that purpose today and it will serve it for future generations if the council applies the national framework correctly.
Green Belt boundaries may only be altered through a Local Plan review where exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated, and only after all other reasonable options have been considered. No such circumstances exist here. More fundamentally, the land fails the Grey Belt test. National policy allows Green Belt to be considered for release only where it is previously developed land or land that makes a negligible contribution to Green Belt purposes. Open, productive farmland in active agricultural use satisfies neither condition.
The submission conflicts with three of the five Green Belt purposes established by NPPF paragraph 143:
‒ Purpose (a) – Check unrestricted sprawl: Ashley forms the narrow green corridor preventing the Manchester conurbation from expanding southwards. Release of 291.03 hectares closes that corridor permanently.
‒ Purpose (b) – Prevent the merging of towns: Development at this scale would physically connect Greater Manchester's southern settlements to the Cheshire villages beyond, creating continuous urbanisation where open countryside currently exists.
‒ Purpose (c) – Safeguard the countryside from encroachment: This is working agricultural land. Including it in the SHELAA as available for development is the encroachment that Green Belt policy exists to prevent.
The council should not advance land through the SHELAA where Green Belt release requires exceptional circumstances that have not been demonstrated and where the Grey Belt test is not met. To do otherwise would prejudice the integrity of the Local Plan process.
Ground 2: Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land
Detailed soil data, including field-level sampling published as part of the HS2 Phase 2b Environmental Statement (document reference MA06), confirms that Ashley's farmland contains Grade 2 Best and Most Versatile (BMV) land on lighter Wick 1 soils near the river terraces, and Subgrade 3a BMV land where topsoil consists of medium clay loam over Salop boulder clay.
NPPF paragraph 180(b) requires that significant weight be given to the economic and other benefits of BMV agricultural land (Grades 1, 2 and 3a). The permanent loss of high-grade farmland to greenfield development is not a routine planning trade-off. It is an irreversible act that national policy requires local authorities to avoid unless the need for development can be shown to be sufficiently compelling to outweigh those benefits. No such case has been made here, and none credibly could be on land of this quality and extent.
Food security is a national priority. The protection of Grades 2 and 3a farmland is a substantive policy safeguard, not a procedural formality. The council must apply it at the SHELAA stage.
Ground 3: Statutory Environmental Designations and Ecological Constraints
The submission area and its surroundings are subject to multiple environmental designations, each of which represents a significant constraint on development:
a. Cotterill Clough Nature Reserve is a 14-acre SSSI managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust and lies immediately adjacent to the submission area. The council carries a legal duty under section 28G of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to take reasonable steps to further the conservation and enhancement of SSSIs. Development of this scale, generating noise, light pollution, surface water runoff and sustained recreational pressure, would cause serious and lasting harm to this designated habitat. Advancing the submission is inconsistent with that statutory duty.
b. The land falls within two local landscape designations: the Bollin Valley and Parklands Local Landscape Designation and the Rostherne/Tatton Park Local Landscape Designation. The Bollin Valley Partnership Area provides active protection to the River Bollin corridor running directly through Ashley Parish. These designations are not background detail. They reflect the genuine environmental quality of this landscape and the need to protect it from exactly this kind of large-scale greenfield development.
c. The area contains documented habitat corridors for bats, owls, badgers and Great Crested Newts, all carrying full legal protection under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Protected woodlands include Sunbank Wood, Hancock's Banks, Ryecroft Covert, Lamb's Covert, Hardy's Covert and Jackson's Bank. Comprehensive Tree Preservation Orders cover historic field margins and estate tree belts across the area. Development of 291.03 hectares would destroy these habitats. A SHELAA assessment that treats this land as available without addressing these constraints has no legal credibility.
Ground 4: Heritage Assets and the Setting of Listed Buildings
Ashley Parish contains 19 Grade II listed buildings whose open countryside settings are legally protected from harmful development. Section 66 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires the council to have special regard to the desirability of preserving those settings. The courts have confirmed that this duty imposes a strong presumption against harm, one that is not simply another weight in the planning balance.
Ashley Hall itself is of exceptional heritage significance, encompassing the remains of Roman ironworks, a 13th-century hunting lodge, the 1490 hall associated with Mary Queen of Scots, and historic grounds connected to the Brereton family. The 12th-century fortification near Castle Mill Farm, The Rookery, and the Arts and Crafts house known as Midways add further weight to a heritage landscape of rare depth and integrity. The historic field patterns, estate boundaries and ancient hedgerows associated with the Tatton Estate complete a coherent historic landscape whose character cannot survive development at this scale.
Ground 5: Infrastructure Incapacity
The submission is not deliverable. The infrastructure constraints affecting Ashley Parish are not matters to be resolved through planning conditions or developer contributions. They are fixed physical and operational limitations:
‒ Rail: Ashley station currently provides one train per hour in each direction. When the new Cheadle station opens, which has planning permission and is fully funded, Ashley's service will reduce to one train every two hours. A settlement of up to 11,640 dwellings cannot be served by a two-hourly rail service. Nor can a fraction of that number be served sustainably.
‒ Highways: Local access depends on narrow rural lanes with restricted-height railway bridges and severe physical pinch points converging on the A538 and M56, both of which are already at capacity during peak periods. There is no viable highway solution at proportionate cost.
‒ Manchester Airport: The submission land falls within operational flight path noise contours and bird-strike hazard safety zones associated with Manchester Airport. High-density residential development within these zones is incompatible with airport safety requirements.
‒ Drainage and utilities: The area lacks deep sewer connections, adequate grid capacity and surface water drainage infrastructure. Surface water flood risk to the River Bollin catchment is significant. Development of this scale would require entirely new utility infrastructure whose deliverability has not been assessed.
A site that cannot be delivered within the plan period cannot properly be included in the SHELAA as available housing land. The council must assess these constraints before, not after, making its inclusion decision.
Ground 6: The Promoter's Public Statements Contradict the Formal Submission
Tatton Estates has publicly described community concerns about 11,000 dwellings as scaremongering. The promoter's own cover letter to Cheshire East, dated 31 March 2026, says otherwise. That letter formally confirms that sites capable of delivering 11,000 homes and 490,000 square metres of commercial floorspace remain available; that the sites "are available, suitable, achievable and deliverable for the proposed uses"; and that "for the avoidance of doubt, all of the sites submitted to the 2024 Call for Sites exercise are still available to meet more of Cheshire East's housing needs during and beyond this plan period."
The council must assess the submission as formally submitted. The 31 March 2026 cover letter is part of the public record. The proposal before the council is for 291.03 hectares capable of 11,000 dwellings, and that is what must be tested against all material planning constraints.
The Cumulative Case for Exclusion
Each ground above is independently sufficient. This is wash-over Green Belt land that fails the Grey Belt test, comprising Grade 2 and Subgrade 3a BMV agricultural soil in active productive use, adjacent to a SSSI, within two local landscape designations, containing documented protected species habitats, encircled by 19 Grade II listed buildings whose settings are legally protected, constrained by infrastructure that cannot support development within any plan period, and promoted on the basis of ambitions that the promoter has sought to deny publicly while formally confirming to the council.
NPPF paragraph 11(d)(i) is clear: the tilted balance does not apply where specific policies in the framework indicate that development should be restricted. Green Belt, BMV land protection and statutory environmental designations are precisely those policies. The council's 5YHLS deficit does not require it to include this land in the SHELAA. It requires the council to apply national policy correctly and to build a Local Plan evidence base that reflects those protections honestly
I request that Cheshire East Council:
‒ Exclude all 12 Ashley Parish sites submitted by Tatton Estates from the SHELAA on the grounds set out in this letter.
‒ Confirm in writing that the Green Belt designation, BMV agricultural land, SSSI adjacency, heritage setting obligations and infrastructure constraints have each been assessed as material constraints capable of preventing inclusion.
‒ Publish its SHELAA methodology and make it available for public comment before site assessments are finalised.
‒ Give full weight in the emerging Local Plan to the cumulative planning harm that development of any part of this 291.03-hectare submission would cause.
I would be grateful for confirmation that this representation has been formally registered.