AN attempt to build another 20 homes on the site of Hartford’s former Mid Cheshire College campus has been scrapped.

Lane End Group, which is working with Your Housing Group on the project, submitted plans to build 128 homes on the former Warrington and Vale Royal College site last June.

The move came just three months after controversial plans to knock the campus down and build 108 homes on the site were approved by Cheshire West and Chester Council.

But now, Lane End has written to CWAC confirming it is withdrawing the proposal.

Work will now continue on the 108-home scheme, following the demolition of the college last autumn.

The original plans were fiercely opposed by Mike Amesbury MP and Hartford councillors, who insisted the village’s infrastructure would struggle to cope with the new homes and hit out at the loss of the campus as a community asset.

Cllr Patricia Parkes, Conservative, was ‘disappointed’ about the move for another 20 homes on the site when the scheme was unveiled.

"In the developers' eyes they might not think an extra 20 houses would make any difference," she told the Guardian last June.

"But that is an extra 20 to 40 school places, doctors' places and cars on the road.

“That is what we are fighting against because the infrastructure in Hartford just is not being improved."

Hartford has been hit with a string of major planning applications in recent years, with developer Redrow having built 279 homes at Weaver Park before winning permission to build another 258 at the site, plus up to 300 at Hartford Grange.

But planning committee members gave the original plans for 108 homes at the college site their overwhelming backing last March, with just Hartford and Greenbank's Cllr Phil Herbert voting against the scheme.

Officers at the time felt the impact of the new homes on village infrastructure would be acceptable, and members suggested the homes could be the 'only viable option' for the old college site.

As part of that project, the developers will pay £984,000 towards the Moss Farm sports complex, £204,812.76 to Hartford C of E High School and £109.260 towards GP provision.

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