CPRE Cheshire has submitted an objection to Cheshire East Council opposing the planning application 15/4286M – King’s School.

The King’s School, Macclesfield has made a major planning application with potential far-reaching impacts upon three sites - one within the urban part of Macclesfield and two in the surrounding Green Belt. The former involves a historic site near the town centre. Both of the latter involve the loss of productive agricultural land, mature trees and hedgerows.

The Cheshire Branch Macclesfield District wishes Cheshire East Council to be aware that it objects to the proposals for each site individually and it therefore it opposes the planning application in its entirety.

The reasons are as follows:

Over-arching comments:
In summary, the proposal by King’s School is to move away from the two sites on which it currently delivers education at Westminster Road/ Cumberland Street in Macclesfield and at Fence Avenue, Hurdsfield, selling both of these sites for housing and – with the proceeds – fund a move to an entirely new campus it wishes to build in the countryside to the north west of Macclesfield alongside its existing playing fields. This is spelt out within the documentation accompanying the planning application.

The school’s reason for moving to a new site is its desire to consolidate its operations onto one site. The application is unconvincing that sufficient effort was put into finding a non- greenfield site or one already designated for development (no evidence is provided) and nowhere is justification provided for building on Green Belt. The only reason offered is that it suits the school’s economic case. This does not constitute special or exceptional circumstances which need to be proved in order to build on Green Belt. There are any number of developers/would-be developers who ‘want’ to build on Green Belt and who would benefit economically from doing so, but that is not a satisfactory justification.

See the document below for our comments on individual sites.