Cheshire East has given the go-ahead for 18 homes in Congleton despite hearing existing residents have to wade through raw sewage when the road floods.

Seddon Homes wants to build the mix of two, three, four and five bed-homes on a 0.84-hectare parcel of land in the open countryside off Padgbury Lane.

But resident Louise Gorman told Wednesday's, July 29, meeting of the southern planning committee that issues relating to road safety as well as flooding and sewer capacity were their major concerns.

"We have experienced, as residents, foul water flooding during heavy rain up to our doors," she said.

"It is not fun to get out your car and walk through human faeces with a nine-year-old child to get to your door."

And she told the committee, Padgbury Lane is a key route for children walking to the high school and two primary schools and there are no safe crossings.

"All the mitigation in the application is for the proposed homes and does not take into account the impact on existing properties," she said.

Ward councillor Emma Hall (Con), speaking as a visiting member, also highlighted concerns about highways and flooding and said there was no economic benefit to the community from this scheme, only for the developer.

She asked councillors to refuse the application, saying:" This committee has a responsibility not only to count housing numbers, but to ensure development is safe, sustainable, justified, and fair to the community that must live with its consequences."

Town councillor Amanda Martin said the application site is on higher ground and 'the experts claim that they have designed in methodology that will prevent surface water run-off from reaching Padgbury Lane'.

She told councillors: "It remains to be seen whether this works in practice."

The applicant's agent, Vanessa Rowell, said the proposed development is a well-designed housing scheme which will deliver needed new and affordable homes in a sustainable location on the edge of Congleton.

When asked about flooding concerns, she said Seddon had discussed the foul sewage system with United Utilities and they were happy with the proposals.

Cllr Andrew Kolker (Dane Valley, Con) said: "There's clearly something wrong with the sewage system in this area because you shouldn't be wading through raw sewage in any circumstances, whether it's been raining heavily or not, so something needs to be done there.

"But, from a planning point of view, the fact of the matter is that we're woefully short on our housing allocation…

"The government has increased dramatically the number of houses that have to be built in Cheshire East."

He moved approval, saying he couldn't think of any reasons for refusal which wouldn't be overturned at appeal, and this was seconded by Cllr Allen Gage (Willaston, non-grouped).

Cllr Martin Edwards (Crewe, Lab) supported the application but said: "I think if there's road safety issues, they should be fixed. If there's flood risks, they should be fixed, regardless of this application."

Cllr Janet Clowes (Wybunbury, Con) said: "We are in a no-win situation in the sense of we may not support these applications, but we have no choice under the current legislation but to approve them."

The application was approved with conditions, including an extra one relating to the inclusion of a stub access road so an adjoining site was not isolated, and an informative for United Utilities to check capacity of its foul sewage systems.

The vote was nine in favour of approval with one abstention.