Councillors voted 9 in favour of 160 Green Belt homes at Jacksons Lane, Hazel Grove, weeks after the area committee said refuse. What happens next.

Up to 160 homes will be built on Green Belt farmland at Jacksons Lane in Hazel Grove. Stockport Council’s Planning and Highways Regulation Committee approved Taylor Wimpey’s outline application on Thursday evening, 24 September.

Nine councillors voted in favour. The chair then called for votes against and for abstentions, and no count was read out for either before he declared the application granted. That is how the vote is heard on the council’s own webcast of the item. The written minutes have not been published yet, and the council’s planning register still lists the application as “Registered”.

The decision goes the opposite way to the local councillors’ advice. On 8 September Stepping Hill Area Committee unanimously recommended refusal. All eight members who took part voted that way, and they asked for a site visit before the final decision. (Officer report, DC/097509)

We reported the scheme and the objections in detail before the area committee met, in our preview of the two Hazel Grove and Offerton schemes.

Timeline of the Jacksons Lane application in Hazel Grove. 5 November 2025, Taylor Wimpey's application for up to 160 homes is received. 17 August 2026, the government publishes revised national planning policy. 8 September 2026, Stepping Hill Area Committee, all 8 members taking part, recommends refusal. 21 September 2026, a site visit by three councillors makes no recommendation. 24 September 2026, the Planning and Highways Regulation Committee approves with 9 votes in favour. Against the scheme were 127 objections and a petition of 2,372 signatures.
Every date on the council's record for the Jacksons Lane application. Graphic by Stockport Today.
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What has been approved

This is an outline permission with every detail reserved. It settles the principle of housing on the land, not what the homes will look like. The officer report sets out what the approval covers:

  • up to 160 homes on just under 11 hectares of fields south of Jacksons Lane, opposite Hazel Grove High School
  • 50% of the homes affordable, with the tenure mix agreed later
  • 6.96 hectares kept as green space, open space, drainage and new habitat, mainly on the southern half next to the Lady Brook
  • one vehicle entrance on Jacksons Lane with a right-turn lane, and a matching right-turn lane added for the high school’s main entrance
  • buildings no higher than two and a half storeys, or 9.5 metres to the ridge

The six Lombardy poplars and the hedge along the Jacksons Lane frontage come out to make the entrance. None of the trees on or around the site is covered by a Tree Preservation Order.

The permission comes with a Section 106 legal agreement. The officer report lists what it must secure:

  • the affordable housing
  • education contributions
  • formal sports provision
  • healthcare, where the NHS asked for £215,333 towards new GP floorspace because local practices do not have the capacity
  • active travel improvements
  • a capped payment towards managing extra visitors at Happy Valley Local Nature Reserve
  • monitoring of the Dean Lane, Chester Road and Jacksons Lane junction
  • monitoring of the biodiversity net gain

Why officers said yes

The land is Green Belt in Stockport’s current plan, and the scheme breaks that plan’s Green Belt policy. Officers said that policy now carries “very limited weight” because it no longer matches national policy.

Three things carried the recommendation, according to the report:

  • Grey belt. The housing part of the site was identified as grey belt in the council’s own 2025 Grey Belt Assessment. The rest stays as open space. Under national policy, housing on grey belt that meets the government’s “golden rules”, including 50% affordable homes, is not inappropriate development.
  • Housing supply. Stockport can show a supply of deliverable housing land for 1.77 years, far short of the five years the government requires. That puts substantial weight on new homes.
  • The housing register. About 9,000 people are on Stockport’s housing register.

The site is also proposed for housing in the council’s draft Local Plan, which suggests 170 homes there. Officers told the area committee the gap of ten homes did not conflict with the draft plan.

What councillors said before the vote

The debate on the webcast was short and uncomfortable. Nobody who spoke said they wanted to build on the Green Belt.

Councillor Liz Crix said it had been put to her that building on the land was “a crime”. “However, it’s a crime that’s legalised by the planning framework,” she said. She said she was worried about wildlife disturbance from heavy machinery and extra pressure on the nature reserve, and hoped the mitigation would work.

The chair, Councillor Steve Gribbon, told the committee it had to be “a policy-based decision”, not one based on opinion or emotion.

Councillor Shan Alexander said she had always had concerns about developing the Green Belt and still did. She said the revised national policy was a material consideration: “Policy is policy and that’s where I stand.”

Councillor Asa Caton proposed approval. He said Stockport could not deliver the homes it needs “simply by brownfield first, brownfield only”, and pointed to the 9,000 people on the housing register.

The objections that did not carry

The report records 136 representations: 127 objections and one in support. Objectors included:

  • the Friends of Ladybrook Valley
  • Hazel Grove High School
  • the South Manchester Badger Group
  • an online petition of 2,372 signatures urging the council to reject the scheme

The petition’s concerns were wildlife, traffic and road safety, pressure on local services, and the loss of Green Belt and landscape.

At the area committee, two residents spoke against. They raised the nature reserve, flooding and drainage, earthworks next to the Lady Brook, and safety at the entrance near Hazel Grove High School and the Laurus Grace alternative provision school. Area committee members agreed that no single harm was more than moderate. Taken together, they said, the harms justified refusal.

Three councillors walked the site on 21 September. Their report notes that much of the land is low-grade farmland, Grade 3b, and that large parts are disused and overgrown. They made no recommendation either way. (Site Visits report, 21 September)

Also approved: 29 flats at Tiviot Dale

Earlier in the same meeting the committee approved a six-storey building at 2 and 4 Tiviot Dale, in Stockport town centre, on the corner of Percy Street and Princess Street. No councillor dissented. (Officer report, DC/093405)

The applicant is 21 Living Ltd. The scheme replaces a former furniture and carpet showroom that the report describes as in “poor, unsafe condition”:

  • 29 flats, 27 of them one-bedroom and two of them two-bedroom
  • two shop units on the ground floor
  • no car parking, with cycle stores inside
  • no affordable housing and no education or open space payments, because a viability assessment showed the scheme could not afford them

The legal agreement includes a late-stage viability review. If the development makes more profit than expected, the council can claw some back for affordable housing, play space or schools elsewhere in the borough. The application drew no representations from the public.

What it means for you

  • The Jacksons Lane decision is made in principle. The formal permission is issued once the Section 106 agreement is signed. The committee delegated that step to the council’s Assistant Director for Placemaking and Planning.
  • You will get another say on the detail. Layout, house types, appearance and landscaping all come back as later “reserved matters” applications. Each one is consulted on. Follow the application on the council’s planning register under reference DC/097509.
  • Objecting on Green Belt principle alone is now much harder. Officers treated the old plan’s Green Belt policy as out of date. Detailed objections on drainage, ecology, access and design stand a better chance at the reserved matters stage.
  • The draft Local Plan matters more than ever. It proposes housing on this site and many others, and it will set the rules for years. Our Local Plan explainer covers what it proposes. More planning stories are on our planning news page.

Sources