DEVELOPERS have unveiled plans for a major housing estate they say is aimed at meeting local demand.

CTP Ltd has submitted an outline planning application for 180 houses on farmland at Rudheath.

The homes would be built on a nine-hectare site north of the A556, bounded by the railway line to the east and Shipbrook Road to the north.

The development at Park Farm would be divided into two distinct areas, one to the east of Shipbrook Road and north of Gad Brook and a second to the east of Shipbrook Road and south of Gad Brook.

An additional area to the west of Shipbrook Road would not be developed, and could be given to a body to secure its long-term ecological use.

The land could be given to a management company, paid for by residents and for community benefit, Cheshire West and Chester Council as part of the Dane Valley Country Park proposals or Cheshire Wildlife Trust as the council’s partner for the delivery of the park.

“The intention is to create a new urban addition to Rudheath which projects sensitively beyond the physical boundary of the railway line into the more gentle slopes of the River Dane valley,” said the developers.

“We propose a high quality sustainable residential neighbourhood, sensitively designed to meet local demand and affordable requirements, and it would be based around the creation of a village character.”

The scheme aims to “fuse townscape and landscape,” and would be broken up with “green fingers” and by extending natural planting and native woodland.

A woodland copse would be retained in the centre of the site with an open space to create a focus, and there would be new planting around the outer edge.

Access to the site and traffic associated with the development was a key issue at a stakeholder workshop, and the plans feature a number of proposals to ensure safety on existing roads is not affected by traffic from the estate.

These include improvements to the Shipbrook Road/A556 junction, widening key sections of Shipbrook Road, improving the Shipbrook Road railway bridge and creating a three-metre wide pedestrian/cycle access from Shipbrook Road onto the northern parcel of the site, which could also be used as an emergency access.

The planning application has been submitted to Cheshire West and Chester Council, and people will have three weeks to comment after a notice has appeared in the press.