Councillors objected to plans which could see 35 houses being built in the green belt in Buglawton and cited that the land isn't earmarked for development in the borough's Local Plan.

David Poyner, of DAVICO Properties Ltd, has submitted an outline application for the refurbishment of Hawthorn Cottage, Canal Side Farm, and the erection of 35 dwellings. The plans also include the formation of a new vehicle and pedestrian access from Gordale Close at Hawthorn Cottage, on Harvey Road, Buglawton.

This planning application is a resubmission of a previous planning application which was withdrawn in September last year after it was recommended for refusal by planning officers before going before the Southern Planning Committee. The application site covers 2.16ha of land.

A similar application for 49 houses at the same location was refused in January 2014.

The application was discussed at Thursday's Congleton Town Council meeting, which was conducted via Zoom.

Cllr David Brown said: "How many times have we seen this application? It's come through and we have rejected it every time on standard rules, it's absolutely crazy.

"It's going into the green belt, it's right next to the canal, there is no access unless your going to take green open space, I know I'm not part of this committee, but I feel very very strongly that we should reject this."

Cllr Amanda Martin stated that the latest application is identical to the one which was withdrawn last year apart from there being up to six additional documents submitted alongside the application on Cheshire East Council's planning portal.

The owners of Hawthorn Cottage weren't notified about the application and commented on Cheshire East's portal: "We had no knowledge of this application and only found out about it via a telephone call telling us that it was being discussed on Facebook, since then we have looked at the information on the planning website and the planning application details state that we were informed 21 days ago, this is not so."

Cllr Martin told the committee that the applicants were "targeting" the piece of land due to the site being included in an assessment before the Local Plan was produced.

The officer who wrote the Strategic Housing Land Assessment included the site in case Cheshire East wanted to expand the green belt around Congleton then development could take place on the plot in question.

However, Cheshire East decided not to include the site in the Local Plan and therefore it's not allocated for development.

Cllr Kay Wesley proposed that the town council objected to the application on the grounds of:

• Highway and Safety – due to the application requiring a lot of access via the "little" Gordale Close
• Traffic Generation
• Tree Loss
• Nature Conservation
• Intrusion into open countryside on the green belt
• Site not included in Local Plan

The motion to object to the application was approved.

The proposed development would include 11 open market affordable homes and the other 24 properties would be retirement affordable homes.

The application states that there would be 37 on-site car parking spaces provided, currently there are just two spaces at the proposed site.

Residents have until 5th August to submit their comments on the application, which can be accessed here and Cheshire East has set 16th September as the decision target date. There have over 20 objections submitted against the application.

An application to convert the agricultural buildings into three houses on Canal Side Farm, was refused by Cheshire East.