MALPAS has been plunged into chaos by the number of building developments going on in the village, according to ward councillor Rachel Williams.

Old Hall street is currently the site of two major building developments, with the Red Lion undergoing major renovations and a new retirement complex being built around 350 yards down the road.

But two more developments in Old Hall Street have recently been approved, at the Sycamores and Malpas Garage, all of which will – in the view of Cllr Williams – have a severe, detrimental impact on the village.

Cllr Williams says that pleas to Cheshire West and Chester’s planning committee to stagger the approval of plans have been rejected, with the council saying delayed starts are not possible.

Although plans to demolish the petrol station and replace it with a new Co-op have been generally met with approval, it is another building development within a small radius.

“I did ask the committee to consider the timing of the construction work if the application was to be approved,” said Cllr Williams. “However, delayed starts are not possible.

“All these developments together are having a severe, detrimental effect on the community, with significant daily traffic congestion and contractor’s vehicles blocking pavements and drive-ways. “They are also resulting in the deterioration of the road surfaces.

“The lack of consideration with regards to the number of concurrent developments in one area is causing chaos – there is a complete lack of integrated construction management planning.

“The planning authority did not think about where the contractor vehicles were going to park or the volume of vehicles involved with each development.

“This situation has been added to further by the planning inspector who approved the Cedars development allowing the construction vehicles for that development to park on the highway and public car parks.”

Cllr Williams adds that the plans are necessary for the village, but the concurrent developments are less than ideal.

“We need these developments to go through,” she added. “It’s just a case of the timing, all the plans going through at once is just causing chaos.

“It is just not ideal for them to all happen at the same time.

“Most residents don’t have a problem with the developments, it’s the parking on the pavements, the constant noise and all the work vehicles that are the problem.

“It will clear up once the developments are finished, but for the time being it is chaos.”

Meanwhile, business owner Chris Davies says parking in the village has become an issue, with the roads being reduced to gridlock at certain times of the day.

Chris, who runs You Media in High Street, says that although the issues do not generally effect him personally, businesses with several staff members suffer.

“The biggest issue is parking for bushinesses,” said Chris.

“At certain times of the day you can’t get anywhere, the majority of businesses with staff are affected.”

Chris lives in Hoole in Chester, an area he says suffers similar issues. But he adds that parking spaces have become much more plentiful after a small charge was introduced, something he says would benefit Malpas.

“You want to keep off the high street, but the car parks are always full,” added Chris. “If they charged for parking people would kick off, but it would clear spaces.”