Plans for an eco-friendly house set into the hillside at Bosley have been given the green light with councillors praising the 'fantastic' and 'innovative' scheme.

Cheshire East's northern planning committee took less than 15 minutes to unanimously approve the application to demolish the existing buildings at Dawson Farm, off Buxton Road, and replace them with the future-proofed eco-friendly home, together with associated renewables and landscaping.

The applicant's agent, Caroline Payne, told councillors: "The new home will be set into the hillside on its north-east and western elevations, meaning that it's partly subterranean and barely perceptible in views of the site.

"Your design officer has commented that the dwelling will be unobtrusive to the point of being almost invisible."

Proposed Bosley eco-friendly house - southern elevation (Credit: Eco Design Consultants)

She said the design ethos is for the home to be climate resilient and self-sustaining.

It will be built to 'passivhaus premium' standard, promoting a low carbon design approach to reducing energy consumption in buildings.

The application which was approved yesterday (Wednesday) was a smaller version of a similar proposal for the same site which met with a mixed reaction from councillors nearly two years ago.

Then the strategic planning board, as the superior authority, had refused the application just two weeks after the northern planning committee had praised it as 'brilliant' and said it was minded to approve it, despite officers at that time saying it should be rejected.

Yesterday, the council's planning officers had recommended approval for this new amended application – whereby the new house will be 18 per cent smaller than the buildings currently on site.

The number of solar panels has also been reduced from 760 in the original proposal to 260.

They will still provide 100 per cent of the proposed dwelling house's energy demand, with excess energy being returned to the grid for use elsewhere.

Councillors Wilson and Edwards (Credit: CEC)

Cllr Anthony Harrison (Chelford, Con) moved the application be approved and this was seconded by Cllr Ken Edwards.

Cllr Edwards (Bollington, Lab) said: "I'm delighted to see this again. I think I was quite enthusiastic about it the first time.

"It does seem to me to be a very, very innovative house and with its appropriate energy sources linked to it."

Cllr Fiona Wilson (Macclesfield, Lab), who also was in favour of the 2024 application, said: "I think this is really innovative design.

"I think that the points that were of concern at strategic planning board who overturned our decision back in 2024 have been addressed, and I want to wish the agent and the developers good luck in building this. It's fantastic."