Taylor Wimpey wants 160 homes on Green Belt at Jacksons Lane, Story Homes and Stockport Grammar 106 on old playing fields. Officers back both, 8 Sept.

Two housing schemes totalling 266 homes go before Stockport councillors on Tuesday evening, and officers are recommending both for approval. One is on Green Belt at Hazel Grove. The other is on playing fields at Offerton that Sport England has objected to losing.

The Hazel Grove scheme has drawn 127 objections and a petition signed by 2,372 people. The Offerton one has objections from 109 addresses. Stepping Hill Area Committee meets at 6pm on Tuesday 8 September in Committee Room 2 at the Town Hall, and the public can speak (Stockport Council).

The two schemes side by side

Comparison of the two Stockport housing applications going to Stepping Hill Area Committee on 8 September 2026 Comparison of two applications. Jacksons Lane in Hazel Grove, by Taylor Wimpey, is up to 160 homes on just under 11 hectares of Green Belt, 50 per cent affordable, with 127 objections and a petition of 2,372 signatures. Dialstone Lane in Offerton, by Story Homes and Stockport Grammar School, is 106 homes on 3.8 hectares of former playing field, 53 of them affordable, with objections from 109 addresses and an objection from Sport England. Sport England is not listed as a consultee on the Jacksons Lane site. Two applications, 266 homes, one committee night Stepping Hill Area Committee, 6pm Tuesday 8 September 2026. Both recommended for approval. Jacksons Lane, Hazel Grove Dialstone Lane, Offerton Applicant Taylor Wimpey UK Story Homes, Stockport Grammar Homes up to 160 106 Affordable 50% 53 homes, 50% Site just under 11 ha, Green Belt 3.8 ha, former playing field Type outline, all matters reserved full application Objections 127, plus 2,372 signature petition from 109 addresses Sport England not a consultee on this site objects, treated as non-statutory Source: officer reports DC/097509 and DC/095163, Stepping Hill Area Committee, 8 September 2026. Graphic by Stockport Today
Neither application is decided on Tuesday. Both go on to the Planning and Highways Regulation Committee.

Jacksons Lane: 160 homes on Green Belt, and why officers say that is allowed

Taylor Wimpey has applied for outline permission for up to 160 homes on just under 11 hectares of farmland south of Jacksons Lane, opposite Hazel Grove High School. Half would be affordable. The application was registered on 16 January 2026 (Stockport Council).

The site is Green Belt in the council’s Unitary Development Plan Review. It is also proposed for allocation in the draft Local Plan, and it sits across Lady Brook from Happy Valley Local Nature Reserve.

Objectors have argued that Green Belt boundaries should only move in very special circumstances. Officers have not tried to demonstrate those circumstances, because they say they do not have to. Their report concludes the scheme meets point g) of Policy GB7 of the National Planning Policy Framework, which means it “is not inappropriate in the Green Belt and so is not harmful to the Green Belt or required to demonstrate very special circumstances”.

Two figures sit behind that. The council’s published housing land supply is 1.77 years, against the five years national policy expects. And the affordable element is set at 50%, which officers say satisfies the framework’s Golden Rules for this kind of release.

The response has been the largest on either scheme:

  • 136 representations in total, 127 of them objections and one in support
  • an online petition signed by 2,372 people, started after the applicant’s own consultation
  • objections from the Friends of Ladybrook Valley and the South Manchester Badger Group, which says the scheme risks badger numbers in Happy Valley
  • comments from the Laurus Trust, which runs Hazel Grove High School and Laurus Grace, welcoming a right turn ghost island but questioning whether there is room for vehicles to pass a bus turning into the school

No consultee objects in principle. The NHS has said there is not enough primary care capacity locally and wants £215,333 towards new floorspace, without which officers say the scheme would not comply with policy. Natural England, the Environment Agency, Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Police and Manchester Airport all raise no objection subject to conditions.

Officers recommend granting permission subject to a section 106 agreement covering affordable housing, education, healthcare, formal sports provision, active travel, biodiversity net gain monitoring, a capped contribution towards pressure on Happy Valley, and monitoring of the Dean Lane, Chester Road and Jacksons Lane junction.

Dialstone Lane: Sport England objects, officers say approve anyway

The Offerton application is a joint one from Story Homes and Stockport Grammar School, for 106 homes on 3.8 hectares off Dialstone Lane. About 3.16 hectares of it is former playing field, privately owned by the school, locked and with no public access. It is 0.6 miles from the main school site, on the other side of the A6 (Stockport Council).

Fifty three of the 106 homes would be affordable, split 75.5% shared ownership and 24.5% social or affordable rent. The other 53 are open market, including 13 five bedroom detached houses. Every home would have solar panels and an air source heat pump.

Sport England has objected. It says the scheme has not demonstrated that losing the natural turf pitch and artificial cricket wicket meets Exception 4 of its Playing Field Policy or paragraph 104 of the framework. Officers have treated that objection as non-statutory, on the basis that the submission says the land has not been used for more than seven years, that no evidence has been produced to the contrary, and that the council’s own Playing Pitch Strategy lists the site as disused. Residents objecting have disputed the last date of use.

The mitigation the council wants in return is the largest single sum on either scheme:

  • £950,000 towards a World Rugby and Football Foundation compliant 3G pitch, investment in cricket capacity at a strategic site, and ancillary improvements
  • £581,622 towards secondary and special educational needs places
  • £356,796 towards open space provision
  • £13,902 to monitor biodiversity net gain on site
  • £8,000 to fund a traffic order for parking restrictions on Dialstone Lane, Akesmoor Drive and the new estate roads

The education money reflects a real shortage. The council’s own figures put the East secondary planning area at a balance of minus 209.67 places, with no surplus expected for five years. Primary is the opposite, with a surplus of 394.76 places in the Stockport planning area.

Objections have come from occupiers of 109 addresses, with six neutral representations. The main grounds are traffic and parking on Dialstone Lane and Brooklyn Road, pressure on schools, GPs and dental surgeries, the loss of green space and playing fields, density, and impact on protected species.

Also on Tuesday’s agenda

The planning items are not the whole night. Councillors will also consider:

  • an open forum with the Hazel Grove Community Association on Hazel Grove Civic Hall
  • a £350 ward flexibility grant towards a mural at Torkington Park skate park, painted with advice from a professional artist
  • a £150 ward flexibility grant to Stockport Normandy Veterans Legacy for artwork and information boards
  • the consultation results on a proposed 20mph zone for the Sundial Road estate in Offerton, funded through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement
  • new no waiting restrictions on part of Hornbeam Close, Offerton, at a cost of £850 from the Offerton ward budget
  • a report on government reforms to planning committees and the national scheme of delegation

What it means for you

  • Neither scheme is decided on Tuesday. Stepping Hill Area Committee comments, and the Planning and Highways Regulation Committee determines both applications later.
  • You can speak. Public question time is open to anyone on matters within the committee’s powers. Questions go in on cards before the meeting starts, or through the council’s public questions page. The meeting is also webcast.
  • If you live near either site, read the officer reports rather than the summaries. Both are linked below.
  • The Green Belt argument has moved. Officers are no longer weighing very special circumstances at Jacksons Lane, because they say the framework no longer requires it here. Objecting on Green Belt principle alone is unlikely to succeed.
  • Traffic is the live issue at Offerton. The council’s highways team does not object, but the £8,000 traffic order is aimed squarely at the parking objections.

Stockport’s record on housebuilding is the backdrop to both. The borough built 43% of the homes government required over the last measured three years, and its assessed need for affordable homes now runs to 1,305 a year. Where that pressure ends up is set out in our story on homeless households rehoused outside the borough.

Sources