PROPOSALS for another 228 homes on Green Belt land at Winwick have gone live, adding to growing concerns about the cumulative scale of development in and around the village and North Warrington.
Bellway Homes has submitted a hybrid planning application for land east of Golborne Road, immediately north of its existing St Oswald’s Place development.
Application 2026/01220/HYB seeks full planning permission for 228 homes, together with outline permission for one self-build property.
The proposals include 103 affordable homes, representing 45 per cent of the development, as well as public open space, landscaping, drainage infrastructure and highway works.
The site extends to around 8.9 hectares and is currently undeveloped land within the Green Belt.
Bellway is already building 153 homes immediately to the south at St Oswald’s Place. If the latest application is approved, the two developments would amount to more than 380 homes off Golborne Road alone.
Changing national planning rules
The application has come forward against a very different planning background from the one in place when Warrington adopted its Local Plan in December 2023.
Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework and increased Government housing requirements have substantially increased the number of homes Warrington is expected to provide.
At the same time, Warrington is currently unable to demonstrate the five-year supply of deliverable housing land required by national policy.
Bellway’s planning case places considerable weight on that position and argues that Warrington has around 3.51 years of housing land supply. That precise figure will ultimately be for the council to assess as part of its consideration of the application.
Changes to national Green Belt policy, including the introduction of “Grey Belt”, have also altered the circumstances in which development on Green Belt land can be considered.
Together, the changes have opened the door to developers bringing forward sites which were not allocated for housing when Warrington’s Local Plan was adopted less than three years ago.
More than 2,000 homes in and around Winwick
The Bellway application does not sit in isolation.
Winwick is already experiencing substantial development at Peel Hall, where around 1,200 homes are being delivered, alongside Bellway’s existing St Oswald’s Place development.
Further housing development and planning applications at Red Bank and on sites towards Newton-le-Willows add to the pressure immediately north of the Warrington boundary.
When existing developments, current applications and proposals around the village are considered together, more than 2,000 new homes are being built, planned or proposed in and around Winwick.
The picture becomes wider still when development across North Warrington is considered.
Peel Land has submitted an outline application for up to 200 homes at Turret Hall Farm in Croft, while substantial development is being promoted around Hob Hey Lane in Culcheth.
Further proposals have emerged at Ashton’s Farm off Clay Lane in Burtonwood and on other land around Culcheth, alongside housing already being constructed across Omega, Croft and Culcheth.
Parkside and Tritax add further pressure
Housing is only part of the development pressure facing Winwick.
Immediately across the borough boundary, the Parkside regeneration proposals in St Helens are expected to have significant implications for the wider highway network.
Parkside Phase 1 is already progressing, while Phase 2 and its associated infrastructure would bring further development close to Winwick.
There is also the much larger proposed Intermodal Logistics Park North, being promoted by Tritax Big Box.
The proposals include a major Strategic Rail Freight Interchange and extensive warehousing north of the M6 J22, with associated highway infrastructure and potential movements extending towards Warrington.
While the full impact of the Tritax proposals is still unknown and will be examined through the Development Consent Order process, the potential additional traffic implications are a particular concern for communities around Winwick.
The A49 through Winwick provides a strategic connection between the M62 at Junction 9 and the M6 at Junction 22 and is already an important route associated with Parkside.
The combined effect means Winwick is potentially facing substantial residential growth at the same time as major logistics and employment developments immediately over the borough boundary.
Burtonwood and Winwick Independent councillor Stuart Mann said it was this cumulative picture which concerned him most.
He said: “Nobody is suggesting Warrington doesn’t need new homes, but we have reached the point where we have to stop looking at every development as though nothing else is happening around it.
“We are now talking about more than 2,000 homes being built, planned or proposed in and around Winwick, before you even look further across Croft, Burtonwood and Culcheth.
“At the same time we have Parkside Phases 1 and 2 and the still unknown impact of the enormous Tritax Intermodal Logistics Park North proposals just over the boundary.
“Winwick is a rural village. Its roads, schools, drainage, health services and public transport weren’t designed around growth on this scale. Over the last ten years we have seen bus services reduced and changed while the number of houses and vehicles continues to grow.
“The infrastructure simply hasn’t kept pace.”
Highway capacity is expected to be one of the major issues considered as part of the latest Bellway application.
Golborne Road, Myddleton Lane, Waterworks Lane and surrounding routes ultimately feed into a network which includes the A49, M6 and M62.
Residents have previously raised concerns about congestion, HGV movements, flooding, road safety and the ability of local roads to accommodate further development.
There are also questions around drainage and flood risk, ecology, biodiversity, landscape impact and the effect of further development on the character of Winwick.
Questions over the Local Plan
The latest proposals are also likely to renew debate about Warrington’s Local Plan, adopted in December 2023 following years of consultation and examination over where new development should take place.
Large areas of Green Belt in the north of the borough were not allocated for housing through that process.
But higher national housing targets, changes to the NPPF and Warrington’s inability to currently demonstrate the required five-year housing land supply mean developers are increasingly testing sites outside those allocations.
Cllr Mann added: “Residents went through a very long Local Plan process and understandably believed that once it was adopted there would be some certainty about where development would and wouldn’t happen.
“Less than three years later we have higher national targets, a changed NPPF and a failure to maintain the required housing land supply. Developers are now coming forward with Green Belt and greenfield sites which weren’t allocated.
“My biggest concern is the cumulative impact. A developer can produce a traffic assessment for 200 homes and argue those additional movements can be accommodated. Another developer can do exactly the same a mile away. Residents don’t experience those developments separately. They experience all of them together.
“If this level of development is going to take place, there has to be serious investment in roads, public transport, schools, health provision, drainage and community infrastructure. We cannot just keep adding houses and expect rural communities to absorb the consequences.”
Winwick Parish Council and ward councillors are now examining the documents submitted with the Bellway application before making their formal representations.
Residents can also submit comments directly to Warrington Borough Council as part of the planning process.
The current deadline for representations on application 2026/01220/HYB is October 26, 2026.
