Cutting down of beauty spot trees set for approval

Plans for works that could see up to 34 trees removed at a Cheshire beauty spot look set to be approved.

Cheshire East Council has said it needs to do the safety works at Poynton Pool because of the size of the body of water.

A decision on the proposal was deferred in 2024, which the council said was because it needed to "make further refinements". The plans are recommended for approval by planning officers.

Campaign group the Friends of Poynton Pool (FoPP) said it hoped the plans were refused and the council would have to "go back to the drawing board" and "engage with the community in a more meaningful way".

In a report to Cheshire East Council's strategic planning board, planning officers said although there was "some disagreement between the parties on the stated inaccuracies", there was "sufficient information available in order to make an informed decision".

Their report added the presence of "a viable alternative" proposal from the campaign group was a planning consideration, but there remained "some uncertainty" about the impact of this plan.

It was "not considered to be sufficient to tip the planning balance against the application proposal".

Mike Ellison, chair of FoPP, said the plans had been "substantially modified" and he believed there should be a new application.

He said although the current proposals involved the removal of less trees than the initial plans - which could have seen 78 trees removed - they would still be "hugely significant".

"Our hope is that the application will be refused, and that the council will have to go back to the drawing board and hopefully engage with the community in a more meaningful way".

Stewart Tennant, who is acting as a technical adviser to FoPP, said he had "a lot of trepidation" about the meeting.

"I'm really worried that they're going to make a bad decision on a beautiful 200-year old-dam, which is also a public amenity and is irreversible, irreversible harm to something we're all enjoying today."

He added: "I can't believe in January 2026 we are looking at engineering solutions like the one currently proposed.

"We're not saying don't do anything - we're in favour of making the reservoir safe and fully compliant - but that can be done in a much more sympathetic manner with hardly any loss of habitat or trees," he said.

Cheshire East Council, which does not publicly comment on live planning applications, is set to discuss the application at a meeting on Friday.

See more Cheshire stories from the BBC and follow BBC North West on X. For more local politics coverage, BBC Politics North West is on BBC One on Sunday at 10:00am and on BBC iPlayer.