UP to 164 more homes will be built in Winnington after councillors approved plans for a development next to Moss Farm.

FI Real Estate Management has been granted outline planning permission for the site off Winnington Avenue – meaning the homes can be built there once Cheshire West and Chester Council approves detailed designs from a future ‘reserved matters’ application.

Almost £1 million will go towards school provision, health facilities and road improvements as part of the scheme – but Northwich councillors are demanding action is taken to tackle congestion in the area.

The brownfield site is next to another plot of land which the developer won outline planning permission for last year, meaning more than 320 homes could be built on the two sites combined, while it adds to the more than 1,200 new homes set for Winnington Urban Village.

READ > More homes set for Winnington... but £1 million will go on infrastructure

Urging CWAC’s planning committee to approve the scheme on Tuesday, John Francis, representing the applicant, said: “I think it is a great scheme and one that will deliver a wide range of tangible and valuable benefits to the local area.

“It will deliver much-needed new housing, a large proportion of which will be affordable, which is something that wasn’t secured through previous – now executed – proposals for the nearby [Winnington] Urban Village.”

Cllr Kate Cernik, Labour CWAC member for Winnington and Castle, called for the new development to include a through road connecting to Moss Farm and Winnington Park Primary School – where youngsters from the new development are likely to attend.

She said: “Although this school is perhaps yards from Winnington Urban Village, to access it either by walking or by road is often between one and two miles for residents – this in itself seems illogical.

Northwich Guardian:

“We as a council have declared a climate emergency – but we are putting extra cars on the road, making people drive a lot further when children want to go to school.”

Her concerns were shared by Cllr Sam Naylor, Labour member for Witton and former member for Winnington and Castle, who suggested the council could be ‘missing a real opportunity’ to connect Winnington Urban Village with Moss Farm – a facility that ‘should be a jewel in the crown’.

He said: “My fear that this kind of salami slicing, incremental building of 100-and-so houses here, 100-and-so houses there, it negates the necessity to make sure there is the infrastructure to make Winnington Village a real and thriving community.”

Traffic woes dominated the planning committee’s debate, as Northwich members called for action to provide better connectivity around Winnington.

Cllr Norman Wright, Conservative member for Marbury, highlighted the need to resolve congestion at Winnington Bridge and insisted he could not support the development.

Northwich Guardian:

“We can’t cope with any more houses in that area without some sort of infrastructure,” he said.

“It needs thousands, even millions to sort this out, and I don’t expect this company to pay for it.”

Cllr Charles Fifield, Conservative member for Weaver and Cuddington, suggested it is ‘crazy to look at this in isolation’ – while Cllr Phil Herbert, independent member for Hartford and Greenbank, agreed that the accumulative impact of new developments in the area ‘bother me greatly’.

However, officers moved to reassure the committee that detailed plans for a new access road would be looked at in the reserved matters application.

There were also concerns about the scheme only having 15 per cent affordable housing, but officers insisted that was the maximum number the developer could afford with the scheme.

READ > Rudheath bungalow plagued by drugs and anti-social behaviour closed by police

As part of the scheme, £948,000 towards the improvement of local infrastructure – including £415,813.24 towards Hartford C of E High School and Winnington Park Primary School, £140,940 for NHS GP surgeries, £355,936 for public space and playing pitches and £30,335.83 for highways.