Cheshire East Council has served an enforcement notice on the owners of a former motorway works compound near Little Bollington, on land that now forms part of the site proposed for the Spodegreen data centre campus. The landowner, the Tatton Estate, is appealing, the BBC reports.

The land, south of Lymm Road near Dunham Massey and Lymm, was used by civil engineering firms from 2014 onwards for work on a link road to the M6, and later while the M56 was turned into a smart motorway. It had temporary planning permission as a construction compound.

A Cheshire East Council spokesperson told the BBC: "An enforcement notice has been issued in relation to the nearby former Costain compound on land south of Lymm Road. This facility was previously given temporary permission for local construction works but was not removed and remediated as required." The council said the notice is not linked to the data centre plan.

What the notice requires

According to Little Bollington with Agden Parish Council minutes, reported by the Macclesfield Times, the notice (council reference 24/00186E) requires all hardstanding, bunds and structures to be removed and the land returned to a grassed field.

Planning Inspectorate case pages list two appeals against it, from the Millington Trust and from SP Energy Networks Holdings Ltd, both to be decided on written evidence. Comments on the first closed on 28 October; comments on the second (appeal 6015490) can be made until 11.59pm on Thursday 6 November. Under planning law, an enforcement notice does not take effect while an appeal against it is undecided.

A spokesperson for the Tatton Estate told the BBC it had been in discussion with Cheshire East about a remediation strategy "addressing security, appearance and the environmental impact of removing the hardstanding", including enhanced landscaping, which was refused. "We are appealing on the basis that some structures and hardstanding constitute permitted development and should be retained, and that remediation timescales should be extended," the spokesperson said.

Where the data centre plan stands

The Tatton Estate has granted developer Innova an option to develop the data centre on the land. Innova has not yet applied for planning permission, and has previously said construction could start within three to five years if Cheshire East Council approves it.

Some nearby residents oppose the plan. Campaigner Mike Reed told the BBC: "People are concerned that the slowness... is connected to the estate's plans to develop the land, and that they will argue a case for it being 'grey belt' land suitable for development."

Grey belt is a category the government introduced in late 2024 for some green belt land, including previously developed land, that is no longer automatically treated as inappropriate for development. Non-housing schemes on such land still have to go through the full planning process.

Sources: BBC News, 2 November 2026 (including statements from Cheshire East Council and the Tatton Estate); Altrincham Today, 2 November 2026; Macclesfield Times (parish council minutes and Planning Inspectorate appeal records); Little Bollington with Agden Community Council agenda, 22 October 2026. This article was produced with the help of AI tools and checked by an editor against the sources above.