A 325-home scheme planned for the Basford East site in Crewe is "a good one" and has been welcomed by nearby residents, a councillor has said.

The principle of residential development on the site, together with access from David Whitby Way, had already been established under a previous outline permission.

Cheshire East's strategic planning board was considering the reserved matters application submitted by Taylor Wimpey detailing the layout, appearance, scale and landscaping at its meeting yesterday (Wednesday).

The board was unanimous in its support but, because of a technicality regarding great crested newts, the application could not be approved outright and so was delegated to the head of planning and the chair of the strategic planning board to approve.

The application site lies within the Basford East strategic site which is allocated in the local plan for employment use together with up to 850 new homes.

The 325 homes, which were the subject of Wednesday's application, will be made up of 227 market houses and 98 affordable and will include a mix of detached, semi-detached, and terraced homes ranging from one to four bedrooms.

The south-eastern part of the site wraps around Crotia Mill Farm, which includes a group of traditional, former farm buildings dating from the late 18th/19th century, as well as a much earlier water mill.

All are considered to be non-designated heritage assets.

The Crotia Mill site is currently subject to a hybrid planning application for the conversion and extension of retained farm buildings for mixed commercial and leisure uses and for the building of a new residential development on the northern and eastern side of the mill yard.

This has not yet been determined but, because a small section of the Taylor Wimpey and the Crotia Mill site directly impact each other, that section of the Taylor Wimpey site was removed from this planning application during the meeting.

David Malcolm, head of development management, told councillors: "The safer option is to take that out of this application and change the condition to say no consent is given to that area."

He said that particular section of the Taylor Wimpey site would be the subject of a future reserved matters application after the two developers had held talks.

The committee was told by Haslington councillor Steve Edgar that the scheme was welcomed by villagers in nearby Weston.

"Whilst all new planning application are contentious, I think this is a good one," said Cllr Edgar.

"The village will be getting a pub/restaurant, a retail food outlet, a crossing, a health centre and a new school, all of which are vastly oversubscribed in the village of Weston.

"The village is literally walking distance away from all this and it's been welcomed by the residents."

He proposed the board accept the officer's recommendation to delegate approval to the head of planning and chair to approve.

The vote was unanimous.