Campaigners' plan to save beauty spot trees

Campaigners against plans to chop down trees at a Cheshire beauty spot say they have come up with an alternative idea.

Cheshire East Council wants to remove trees at Poynton Pool for safety reasons, which it has said it is legally required to do.

Friends of Poynton Pool said instead it should just remove one partially-felled tree.

But Cheshire East Council – which acknowledges its plans will be “unequivocally harmful” - is set to approve its scheme next week.

The pool, an ornamental pond dating back to around 1750, is classed as a high-risk reservoir because of the amount of water it contains.

Friends of Poynton Pool said its own scheme would see a reinforced concrete spillway built on the line of the overflow structure.

Stewart Tennant, a Manchester-based civil engineer who got involved with the group after hearing about the plans, said some longer weirs to control the water would “let it carry on with its natural course as it has done for the last 250 years”.

He said the proposal is “definitely credible”.

“It’s in fact conventional as most reservoirs have concrete spillway.

“I’d say the solution proposed at the moment is unusual,” he said.

Cheshire East Council’s proposal for the site has been controversial, with many local people and local Conservative MP David Rutley, and Labour’s candidate for Macclesfield Tim Roca among those objecting to the plans. The Macclesfield branch of the Liberal Democrats said they were also opposed to the plans.

The local authority said the most recent inspection of the pool found that safety improvements were necessary.

Poynton Pool has a 1 in 10,000 chance per year of flooding happening because of the amount of water it contains, the council said, and the works would improve the “resilience” of the spillway.

In a report ahead of next week’s meeting , planning officers said there had been objections from the town council, alongside a further 1,700 letters from groups including Cheshire Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust.

A petition signed by more than 5,700 people has also been submitted calling on the council to review its 2019 flood study of the site.

Gwenda Mayers from the Friends of Poynton Pool said that various people had become involved in the last 18 months, including design engineers.

“We’re not engineers but they recognise that there are alternatives that are actually far better alternatives,” she said.

Elaine Adam from the group added the scheme “doesn't make sense to local people”.

“We’re astounded and upset that this local asset, our community amenity, is going to be spoiled forever once they start taking these trees down,” she said.

John Borthwick, a local resident who has also worked on reservoirs, added: “We don’t deny the reservoir needs work and updating, we do say there are less instructive ways of doing it and we are asking can they please look at what we’re proposing.”

In the report, officers said 78 trees and two 130ft (40m) sections of hedgerows will need to be removed.

The officers described the creation of the gaps as “a brutal intervention and unequivocally harmful”.

It also said there will be impacts on toads, hedgehogs, birds and bats in the local area.

In recommending the scheme for approval, officers said the strength of local opposition was “acknowledged and completely understood.”

“However, the identified harm is considered to be outweighed by the need for the proposal and the lack of any viable alternatives in this case.”

Mick Warren, chairman of the council's environment and communities committee, said: "If the works are not done, the council - as the responsible body for Poynton Pool - is at risk of legal action from the Environment Agency, including enforcement and fines.

“A proposal for these safety improvement works was subject to public consultation in 2022. As a result of the feedback received, the council tested alternative solutions put forward and revised its proposals for carrying out the safety works."

The planning application will be discussed by Cheshire East Council at a meeting on 24 April.

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