A campaign group fighting proposals for a 325-home development in Sandbach says it received 87 complaints in just one day from residents unable to upload their objections to Cheshire East's 'upgraded' planning portal.

The date for members of the public to comment on the Bloor Homes application to build the dwellings and a community park on 19.28 hectares of open countryside and agricultural land between Manor Road and the A533, The Hill, was extended to midday on Thursday (9 October), following some revisions to the scheme.

Campaign group Sandbach Vs Overdevelopment says around 1,000 objections have so far been uploaded on to the council's planning portal regarding this application.

But the group fears not all the representations made by the public will get through to council planners because Cheshire East's planning portal regularly fails to upload them and instead displays an error message.

Bloor Homes, Sandbach Heath Application Site (Planning Docs) The application site for the proposed 325-home Bloor Homes development at Sandbach Heath is outlined in red with the other land owned by the applicant outlined.

It is now urging residents to also email their comments on the application directly to the council's planners at [email protected] quoting application number 25/0211/OUT.

The group did manage to upload a message to the council last week informing it of the portal's failures.

Referring to a resident who finally managed to upload their objection at the seventh attempt because the portal kept registering an error, the group stated: "This is one of 87 complaints we have received yesterday alone about portal issues both in loading the application and comments and in their submissions.

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"It seems this person has emailed in the end so please could you kindly ensure their objection is logged?"

"A lot who have experienced these issues have given up and we fear have therefore not submitted their objections."

Cheshire East 'upgraded' its planning portal last year and since then there have been a flood of complaints that it is not fit for purpose.

Just last week the audit and governance committee called for the matter to be looked into and a report to be presented to its next meeting.

This came after Cllr Rachel Bailey (Con) said she had been inundated with complaints from residents in her Audlem ward who were having difficulties responding to a planning consultation.

The week before that Tatton MP Esther McVey wrote in the Knutsford Guardian the council's new system was 'not fit for purpose' and 'makes a complete mockery of the planning system', after being contacted by angry residents in her constituency.

In November of last year Mobberley Parish Council, which acts as a consultee on applications in its area, reported it was unable to make its views known to Cheshire East on certain proposals because it had been unable to view some documents at that particular planning meeting.

Cheshire East Council has been contacted for comment.

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