68 homes planned for Bramhall Green Belt site

Developer, Wain Estates, has submitted plans to build 68 new homes on the site of an equestrian facility on the edge of Bramhall.

While the site has been previously developed, it is outside of the settlement boundary of Bramhall and within the Green Belt – land protected to prevent the uninhibited expansion of urban areas into the surrounding countryside.

Wain Estates’ plans propose a total of 68 homes for the site off Lytham Drive in Bramhall, ranging in floorspace from 98 to 204 m². 50% of properties will be made available as affordable housing.

Proposals also include a new play area, and financial contributions to improve roads accessing the site. Under new biodiversity net-gain requirements for developments, plans also propose a mix of on- and off-site mitigation.

A decision on the site is currently expected in June 2024. Planning consultants, Emery Planning, who have submitted the application on behalf of Wain Estates, argue that the council should permit the scheme in light of Stockport’s housing shortages, as well as its withdrawal from Greater Manchester’s city-region-wide plans for housing and subsequent lack of a Local Plan for the borough, currently in development.

While Stockport has previously promoted a brownfield-first approach to housing development and has opposed building on the Green Belt, councillors have recently seen their decisions overturned at appeal, such as at Mirrlees Fields, where the Planning Inspector cited the lack of a five-year housing pipeline in the borough as influencing her decision.