THREE women have taken hold of the planning reins at Chapelford Urban Village - and they have been given the difficult task of ensuring that the £90 million project is completed on time.

Caroline Pelham-Lane, overall project manager; Siobhan O'Mahoney, road project manager; and Annette Lardour, resident engineer, are running the scheme together and they say that it is highly unusual for three women to be in charge of such a huge development.

Caroline said: "I have never actually worked alongside a female on a development project as it is a predominantly male industry, so this makes a pleasant change."

The purpose-built Chapelford village, on the site of the former RAF Burtonwood airbase, will include a school, a health centre and a community park, as well as shops and leisure facilities.

Caroline, Siobhan and Annette have teams of men working for them, as well as alongside them, and they are currently working on the demolition scheme and road construction.

Header House, which was built in the 1950s, was once the largest single-storey building in the country and developers are hoping to salvage 2,500 tonnes of steel for recovery and recycling after it has been demolished.

Caroline said: "I suspect we may have been known as the three witches, but as long as the job gets done we don't really mind."

Chapelford has been hailed as one of the most significant development sites in the UK and is being developed in consultation with the community and the borough council.

Increased concerns over traffic have resulted in plans to close part of Burtonwood Road, from Farmleigh Gardens towards Great Sankey, being given the go-ahead by highways bosses in anticipation of the creation of Chapelford and the opening of junction eight of the M62.