Macclesfield MP David Rutley has joined local campaigners in expressing "strong concerns" about a developer's plans to remove a large quantity of peat to make way for controversial housing.

Bellway Homes is proposing to build nearly 160 homes on former greenbelt land off Chelford Road in Henbury.

Outline planning permission has already been granted for 134 homes, meaning they have been accepted in principle, and the remaining 23 are yet to be decided by the Strategic Planning Board at Cheshire East Council.

Councillors debated the proposals at a meeting in January but deferred a decision until next week.

On a recent visit to the site, Henbury parish councillors, Dr Simon Browne and Richard Slater explained to the MP how the developers now propose the extraction of around 24,000 cubic metres of peat, with an amount to be reused on the site and the remainder – currently estimated as 5,500 cubic metres - to be removed.

The area planned for development lies on the old Longmoss peat bog. Geo-assessments have shown depths of peat up to 5 metres in parts, although campaigners say the full depths were not measured by the developers before making their planning applications.

Opponents have expressed concern about the impact of the peat's removal on climate change as the area acts as a major store of carbon dioxide.

The parish councillors highlighted that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimate that land with a depth of 30-50cm of peat, as is the case with the local sites, stores an amount of carbon equivalent to that in an identical area of tropical rainforest.

After visiting the site, Mr Rutley said: "Peatland is increasingly recognised as an important aspect in the fight against climate change, being a valuable source of carbon storage."

He also questioned why Bellway has not assessed the potential impact the peats removal will have on drainage at the site and local wildlife.

Mr Rutley added: "Protecting this vital resource is a real priority and this needs to be properly reflected in the plans for the planned developments on Chelford Road. A peat management plan needs to be produced and every effort made to protect this valuable, local source of carbon storage."

Cllr Slater praised the MP's continued support for the parish council in its opposition to the development.

He said: "We're now into year six of this fight, so we've done alright so far. My overall thoughts are that the Local Plan introduced by the Conservative Council was and always has been flawed from the start.

"Effectively, it's a developer's charter," he added.

Councillors are set to decide on the proposals at next Wednesday's meeting of the Strategic Planning Board. Full details can be seen here.