Site PYT 2: Land north of Glastonbury Drive
The land north of Glastonbury Drive site is allocated for sports and leisure development (for 10 ha). Development will only be permitted subject to a planning obligation governing the relocation and redevelopment of existing facilities at the Poynton Sports Club site to make sure that there is continuity of sports and recreation provision. Development proposals for the site must:
- retain and protect, through an undeveloped 15 metres wide buffer to either side of the bank tops, Poynton Brook and its associated wet ditches, and woodland;
- retain and protect, through an appropriate buffer and/or mitigation, any protected species;
- demonstrate through a noise impact assessment that existing residential areas would not be unacceptably affected by noise from the sport and leisure use;
- make sure that any building is an appropriate facility for outdoor sport and/or recreation and is located and designed utilising the landform of the site in order to acceptably minimise its visual impact and its impact on the Green Belt;
- seek to avoid the discharging of surface water to the gravity sewer crossing the site;
- include details of any proposed external lighting (for example of pitches), which should be designed in a way so as not to cause unacceptable nuisance to residents living around the site, give rise to unacceptable highway safety, ecological or landscape impacts, or result in excessive sky glow;
- make sure that the layout and design of development, including all boundary treatments and related infrastructure preserves the openness of the Green Belt; and
- undertake a Mineral Resource Assessment for sand and gravel.
Supporting information
12.53 The site is a field located to the north of the town and presents the opportunity for the development of good quality sports facilities through the relocation of Poynton Sports Club. Surrounding land uses include residential and open countryside.
12.54 For the avoidance of doubt, this site remains in the Green Belt.
12.55 The allocation of the site and the relocation of the sports club will enable the redevelopment of the sports club’s existing site for residential redevelopment; a separate allocation in the plan (Site PYT 1 'Poynton Sports Club'). The two allocations are therefore linked and a planning obligation will be required to govern the mutual development of each site, specifically to make sure that the new sports and recreation facilities on the Glastonbury Drive site are constructed and fully open and operational before the sport and recreational use of the current Poynton Sports Club site is ceased and the redevelopment of it is commenced.
12.56 The allocation of the site allows for a new building to be constructed on the site, which will support its outdoor sport use. The provision of appropriate facilities (in connection with the existing use of land or a change of use) for outdoor sport, outdoor recreation, cemeteries and burial grounds, and allotments is appropriate development in the Green Belt as long as the facilities preserve the openness of the Green Belt and do not conflict with the purposes of including land within it. The design, scale and massing of the clubhouse therefore needs careful consideration to make sure it remains appropriate and proportionate to its Green Belt location.
12.57 Bringing forward development on the two sites in the way proposed enables Poynton’s housing needs to be addressed without the need to remove further land from the Green Belt. At the same time it enables a significant investment to be made in local sports facilities. If these two sites did not come forward in the way proposed, there would be pressure for the release of additional Green Belt land around the town for housing development.
12.58 Any replacement and/or new sports provision should take account of the Cheshire East Playing Pitch Strategy and Action Plan (PDF, 2.7MB) [ED 19], the Cheshire East Indoor Built Facilities Strategy (PDF, 842KB) [ED 20] and LPS Policy SC 2 ‘Indoor and outdoor sports facilities’. Sport England should also be engaged in developing the sports/leisure proposals for the site.
12.59 Planning applicants will need to demonstrate, through a noise impact assessment, that the development of the site will not give rise to unacceptable disturbance for surrounding residents. There are various noise mitigation measures that could be applied, if needed, for example restricting the hours of certain activities close to residential areas, or the provision of a buffer zone.
12.60 Details of external lighting must also be included with any planning application for the development of the site. These details will be very carefully assessed and must demonstrate how unacceptable impacts will be avoided in terms of residential amenity, highway safety, ecology and landscape and also sky glow.
12.61 Poynton Sports Club would need to be fully operational from this site prior to the commencement of development on Site PYT 1 'Poynton Sports Club'.
12.62 A gravity sewer runs through the site from the southwest corner to the northwest of the site; the discharging of surface water to the sewer should be avoided given the availability of Poynton Brook to the north.
12.63 The site lies within the Green Belt in an important open gap between Poynton and adjacent areas of Greater Manchester. This area has already been affected by the building of the A6- Manchester Airport Relief Road and so is vulnerable to further erosion of its open character. Careful design is required to minimise and mitigate the impact of development-including important views into the site from the A532 road and other vantage points, as well as the wider character of the countryside in the sensitive gap between Poynton and Bramhall/Hazel Grove.
12.64 The council is aware from BGS mineral resource mapping that the site is likely to contain sand and gravel resources, as well as being part of a wider adjoining sand resource. As sand is a finite resource essential to support economic growth, it is considered to be of local and national importance in planning policy terms. In line with LPS Policy SE 10 ‘Sustainable provision of minerals’ and national guidance on mineral safeguarding, the council will require the applicant to submit a Mineral Resource Assessment as part of any application to provide information on the feasibility of prior extraction of the mineral resource before the proposed development proceeds and the sterilisation potential that the proposed development will have on any future extraction of the wider resource. The Mineral Resource Assessment should be of a standard acceptable to the council, as the minerals planning authority, and undertaken by a suitably competent person with appropriate qualifications or professional background, such as a minerals surveyor. The findings of the Mineral Resource Assessment will be an important planning consideration in the determination of any planning application for the development of this site.
12.65 Further information on Mineral Resource Assessments can be found in the Minerals Safeguarding Practice Guidance v1.4 (PDF, 299KB) (2019, The Mineral Products Association & The Planning Officers Society).
Policy information
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