Hi, I'm Steve Buckley and I've lived in Sandbach for over 30 years. I'm a Handyman and volunteer member of the team working with Sandbach Town Council updating our neighbourhood plan. I'm also coordinator of the "Land off Bradwall Road Campaign Group".

We are trying to raise funds to appeal against a very recent speculative housing approval in open countryside beyond the settlement boundary. We hope that in doing so, it will also help to prevent other applications on productive farm land from being approved. I have spoken at appeals to try to prevent approvals on other sites in Sandbach and other parts of Cheshire East.

Sandbach is a historic market town in Cheshire with a population of around 20,000. It has seen housing growth of 37% in the last 15 years, but little or no increased infrastructure. Traffic congestion and road safety is a major concern.

Cheshire East Council is heavily in debt and does not have a 5 year housing supply. They are under resourced in the planning team and risk averse, so very reluctant to refuse speculative planning applications, even if there is good reason to do so.

Developers are now exploiting this profit opportunity with live applications that could see Sandbach grow by around 60% over the 20 year period since 2010.

Council officers appear to be failing to scrutinise applications correctly. Severely flawed applications are now being approved with as little as 2 minutes debate at planning meetings. Transport assessments that are grossly inaccurate are being approved without proper scrutiny. This is causing chaos and danger on the road network.

Residents have pointed out the issues, but the planners are refusing to acknowledge the clear and critical errors that render the consents invalid. A request for a "material change of circumstances review" that could have avoided the need for legal action appears to have been ignored.

A decision notice on the latest approval for 180 houses on Bradwall Road has just been issued, so as residents our only option to make the council acknowledge the errors is to launch legal proceedings via a pre application protocol letter within the 6 week deadline. We have about 4 weeks left and are trying to raise £3,500 for a solicitor to take on the case and issue proceedings. We might need more later if it goes to court, but we hope that will not be necessary.

Forcing Cheshire East to reconsider this application based on corrected transport assessments would hopefully not only prevent this approval from progressing, it would also force them to carry out their legal obligation to scrutinise ALL transport assessments submitted for all other applications in Cheshire East. This would help ensure that only truly sustainable sites are approved.

Any funds raised that are not subsequently required for this action, will be passed on to similar campaigns that need help. The cost of legal action can feel like an impossible mountain, but if we unite and act together, even the worst case scenario costs are manageable.

Shared across the population of Sandbach it's of the order of the cost of a coffee. Across all parts of Cheshire East that stand to benefit from this action, the cost is loose change?

The choice is simple, we just let the developers do what they want and stop complaining about all the new houses on green fields without the infrastructure to support them, or we actually do something that might help to stop them?

Please help us to ensure that all Cheshire East planning applications are scrutinised correctly.

Many thanks for your support.