A residents' group is urging the people of Chester to comment on plans for a massive housing scheme for up to 1,400 homes alongside Wrexham Road .
Westminster Park Residents’ Association is also inviting locals to go along to a public meeting next week to discuss the project with traffic concerns likely to be high on the agenda.
In June Redrow Homes lodged an initial application with Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) for 509 homes and associated infrastructure including a shopping centre with supermarket, restaurant and pub plus a health centre, nursery and primary school with playing fields.
The new neighbourhood will be created on farmland removed from the green belt when the Local Plan was adopted by CWaC, as planning authority, to make provision for future growth.
Redrow and Taylor Wimpey will deliver the majority of the homes.
Also submitted is a linked plan showing a proposed ecological area where great crested newts will be relocated. Two more planning applications will follow to include the rest of the housing plus more detailed proposals around the infrastructure.
Current plans can be viewed online or in hard copy at Lache library.
A number of responses have already been received, particularly in relation to the effect the development will have on traffic in Chester and the surrounding area.
Pauline Brown, chair of Westminster Park Residents’ Association, said: “A lot of people have still not woken up to the fact that this development will go ahead and it will have a huge impact on the traffic both south and north of the River Dee.
“This new estate will be almost twice the size of Westminster Park and the number of vehicle journeys that it is going to generate will be enormous.
“Quite apart from people commuting to work, in the early stages of development, while there is no school, shops or health centre on the estate, people will need to reach all of these facilities via the Wrexham Road on a daily basis.”
The association is keen to put forward a response to the council that is ‘representative’ of residents’ views’ and hopes they will go along in force to a public meeting taking place at Westminster Park Community Centre at 8pm on Wednesday, October 18.
Pauline added: “Although traffic impact is a big issue, there are also other aspects of these plans that people need to look at including how the development will affect the provision of education and healthcare in the area, how the drainage and ecology of the area will be managed and how the archaeological assets of the site will be conserved.”
The plans can be searched on the planning section of the council website under the following reference numbers: 17/02453/OUT (housing) and 17/02444/FUL (newt mitigation area).
