Plans have been approved for new homes and care facilities on green belt land in Hazel Grove.  

The site sits off Jacksons Lane, at Stockport Rugby Union Football Club (RUFC).

In all, the scheme would see up to 60 new homes built, plus a residential care home with 75 beds, as well as a 70-apartment affordable extra care facility for the over-55s. 

Also included in the plans are redevelopments for the rugby club itself, which Stockport RUFC chair Ged Gurney said will be 'game-changing'; this will include a new all-weather grass pitch, which will also be available for local schoolchildren to use. 

Sixty percent of the properties will be designated 'affordable housing', and ten percent will be supported housing.

The site sits close to Happy Valley, a nature reserve - there are also plans to improve footpaths into the valley.

The plans are being delivered by Russell Homes. 

Thomas Relph from Russell Homes, Ged Gurney from Stockport RUFC and Greg Dickson, Director at Stantec (Image - Russell Homes)

Thomas Relph, Associate Land and Planning Director for Russell Homes, said: "The site is located in the heart of Stockport and will provide housing, as well as a range of wider amenities that will cater for people of all ages within the local community.

"The development will have a much wider positive impact too – it will continue the rugby club's community legacy for the next generation and enable it to maintain its high standards.

"It will also generate significant economic and social benefits."

Stockport RUFC's Ged Gurney added: "Enhancing our facilities, and ability to offer a wider range of benefits to all users within the local community, will secure our future and further embed the club into the local community for years to come. We're excited to see this come to life."

However, the plans have not been without some controversy. 

Although Stockport Council's planning committee approved the plans on 27 March, some councillors described it as a 'difficult decision'.

Objectors to the plans claim that local services are 'overstretched' and struggling to cope with the number of people living in the area. 

A map showing plans to develop land at Stockport Rugby Union Football Club, to the south of Jacksons Lane, in Hazel Grove (Image - SMBC planning portal)

In weighing up the decision, members of the council's planning committee balanced the impact on the green belt with the need to address a 'very significant position of housing undersupply', as one council officer put it.

Cllr Mark Jones, chair of the committee, said it was a "really, really hard decision".  

Although Cllr Jones maintained that the new houses would be a 'significant benefit', he also said: "We have a piece of green belt here - it's going to be harmed to a very significant degree."

Cllr Mike Newman similarly said: "It's a tricky one. 

"For me, the large issue was Happy Valley - but the fact that you will not be able to see these buildings from the valley is fundamental. If they could have been seen from the valley, I'd be voting against it, for sure."

Cllr Rachel Wise also said that building on that scale in the green belt was 'hard to countenance', but said the application was 'incredibly thorough' in outlining what the special circumstances were. 

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