The deadline for a consultation on use of the land around Jodrell Bank has been extended.

Cheshire East Council is inviting comments on a new supplementary planning document to guide applications that could impact on the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Macclesfield.

The draft document has been published for consultation and this has now been extended owing to the Christmas/New Year holiday. All comments should be received by the council by February 4 2022.

Jodrell Bank is a world heritage site and a leading radio-astronomy observatory. It is also the international headquarters for the Square Kilometre Array, a global project to build the world's largest telescope across several countries.

The draft planning document seeks to provide more guidance on key policies in the borough's Local Plan, which is aimed at helping to protect the unique work carried out at Jodrell from potentially harmful development.

The supplementary planning document (SPD), while not part of the statutory development plan, is a recognised way of providing additional planning guidance that should be taken into account in the planning process.

Councillor Mick Warren, Cheshire East Council's chair of the environment and communities committee, said: "The Jodrell Bank Observatory is a unique scientific facility, so we want to ensure we have the right planning tools in place to protect it from development that might harm the cutting-edge research carried out there.

"This draft SPD is intended to help developers, property owners and the council when it comes to determining applications that could impact on this site. We want to get as much feedback as possible and, therefore, have extended the consultation period by more than three weeks."

The document covers issues related to the unique, historic value of Jodrell Bank, the type of development that might harm its work through electrical interference – such as the proliferation of modern radio and televisions and personal electronic devices in the home – and the type of information that developers need to submit to the council when making an application.

All public feedback will be carefully considered before a final supplementary planning document is submitted for approval by the council.

Comments should be received by February 4 via the council's consultation portal or by writing to Strategic Planning (Westfields), c/o Municipal Buildings, Earle Street, Crewe CW1 2BJ.

Jodrell Bank is home to the Lovell Telescope, the site which forms part of the Astrophysics department at the University of Manchester, was founded in 1945.

It was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in July 2019.

Fill in the consultation here.

See also: Music: Six times Macclesfield's Jodrell Bank was used in song

Macclesfield: Have you signed up for our Friday weekly newsletter? It contains each week's top 10 Macclesfield news stories, and one FREE exclusive article?

1000 of you have signed up already. Simply enter your email address in the shaded box below or on this link.

Free from pop-up ads, or unwanted surveys, Macclesfield Nub News is a quality online newspaper which produces 30-40 stories a week for our town.

You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.