Gatley Golf Course housing scheme approved at appeal

Plans for over 270 new homes to built on the former Gatley Golf Course have been approved following a successful appeal of Stockport Council’s previous decision to deny the scheme.

Developers, Hollins Strategic Land (HSL), took the decision to reject the scheme to appeal in September 2024 after councillors on Stockport’s Planning & Highways Regulation Committee went against the recommendations of the council’s planning officers and voted 7-5 against the scheme.

HSL proposed a development of 278 new homes on the 44-acre site either side of the Manchester to Wilmslow railway line, which also included 50% affordable housing provision and 26 acres of green space, but councillors rejected plans over the loss of Greenbelt land.

In the appeal, the Planning Inspectorate overturned Stockport Council’s decision, highlighting the continued lack of a Local Plan in the borough, as well as significant undersupply of land identified for housing development, a situation that has been worsened by recent changes to housing targets. The Inspector ruled that the need to address housing shortages in the borough outweighed the loss of the golf course site, particularly given the green spaces that would be preserved as part of the development.

The Planning Inspectorate’s decision to overturn Stockport Council’s decision on the Gatley Golf Course site follows other such rulings affecting Green Belt sites in the borough in light of the shortage of housing supply in the borough. Development of the Mirlees’ Fields site in Hazel Grove, owned by MAN Energy Solutions, to bring forward around 200 new homes was also permitted on appeal in January 2024, while in 2020, Seashell Trust was also granted approval on appeal to redevelop its campus sell off part of the charity’s land for housing.