Miliband and Rayner’s bulldozers rock historical village in inexperienced belt row

They say it never rains but it pours. If so, the residents of a Cheshire village earmarked for up to 20,000 new homes must feel they are about to be swept away.

They are still reeling from the prospect of homes swamping green-belt land, as a result of Adlington being shortlisted as one of the Government’s ‘new towns’ championed by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.

But now they find themselves in the path of a proposed 300-metre-wide pipeline that forms a key part of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s controversial ‘Net Zero’ push. The underground pipe would take ‘captured’ carbon dioxide from cement and lime-making quarries in the Peak District and carry it 120 miles across the Cheshire countryside to be stored under the Irish Sea.

Dubbed the world’s largest cement decarbonisation project, Peak Cluster has so far received £28 million of taxpayers’ money from the Government’s National Wealth Fund. The Chancellor has said the ambitious plan would modernise the cement industry, create jobs and deliver ‘vital carbon capture infrastructure’.

Calamity couple: Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner’s plans look set to swamp Adlington

But residents on the ancient Adlington estate – which borders the celebrity enclaves of Alderley Edge, Wilmslow and Prestbury, and traces its roots back to Saxon times – are up in arms.

‘Our Cheshire countryside is at risk,’ said local councillor Alison Rodwell. ‘Our green belt was under threat from the plans for 20,000 houses at Adlington New Town. Now we have had notice of a consultation for a Net Zero project cutting in the same land.

‘These decisions are taken by central Government, bypassing local planning approval.’

Adlington is one of 12, mostly brownfield sites shortlisted for new town status. Campaigners say it is the only one opposed by its local council and MPs, while the Campaign To Protect Rural England pressure group has also objected as it would destroy 2,300 acres of pristine green belt, with significant loss of farmland. Peak Cluster says it would only use compulsory access and purchase powers as a last resort if it failed to reach a voluntary agreement with landowners.

Belport, the property developer, has promised to make up to 40 per cent of the proposed new homes ‘affordable’ – offered at a fifth below market value to key workers. But the cheapest two-bedroom house on a nearby development costs £450,000.

A final decision on which new towns will be selected is expected this spring.