Life living in the shadow of UK's largest outlet shopping centre

Millions of people, traffic and reports of rats - this is what life is like in the shadow of UK's largest outlet shopping centre.

Cheshire Oaks opened in 1995 on a former greenfield site for the first time. The once quiet and rural suburb of Ellesmere Port became one of the busiest corners of the UK as a new highway connected to the rest of the country, reports CheshireLive.

Since its grand opening 30 years ago, a strip of housing remains where some people have lived since its rural conception. Visitor numbers have continued to grow, now reaching more than half a million shoppers every month.

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And while the retail park has had to continually adapt to meet the growing demand, so to have the people who share a home with the shopping capital of the North West. Rita Duvall Jones is coming up to her ninth year living on the street bordering Designer Outlet Cheshire Oaks.

She tries to maintain her garden well for her escape-artist tortoise, Mandela, and her eight grandchildren, despite living with what can often be debilitating arthritis. She had moved from Ellesmere Port with her son, due to her condition requiring a bungalow for access.

Following his death five years ago, just a month before his own son was born, she often relies on getting out of the house and keeping busy. She acknowledges that living next to the retail park has its perks, but points to a bleaker ramification of residing in the area.

She said: “It’s lovely here but it has got its problems. It’s not because of anybody in this road - it’s because of what’s behind us."

She believes the “invasion of rats”, suffered by her and the neighbour, can be attributed to the nearby KFC that borders their back gardens. Her neighbour often hung bird seed which would vanish at night.

She added: “He had like a washing line on the front with birdfeeders, so of a night-time, on the camera, you could see all the rats eating the seed. The security light was on-off, on-off. I realised that the rats were passing my back door like it was the M6.”

KFC refutes Rita’s claims, suggesting the pests are squirrels rather than rats.

A KFC Spokesperson said: "We consistently work with Ecolabs and Pest Control to keep our outdoor spaces pest-free. Recent checks this week confirmed there were no unwanted guests, but those sneaky squirrels from the neighbouring woods might be the culprit here.

“We’ve let our local customers know that our stringent processes are successful, and we will continue to work with local authorities to ensure it remains this way.”

The problem became more than just a worry for Rita once she had to start forking out for methods of pest control, despite contacting the restaurant for support.

Rita added: “We had to pay £40 each and they said if it happened again, they’d foot the bill. Why should I keep buying rat poison?”

Alongside pests, another resident, who has lived on the street for 34 years, struggles living so close to the busy roads in and out of Cheshire Oaks.

The resident, who wished to remain unnamed, said: “Traffic is awful. The traffic is the main thing that spoils it around here, completely. Sometimes you can’t even get out of here. Four o’clock isn’t a good time to go anywhere…because you can’t get out or get in.”

Reflecting on what life was like when they first moved in to the property, they consider the increased expansion and popularity of the park to have negatively impacted the street.

They added: “Being up here used to be nice - now it’s all full on. It used to be just sort of on the weekend and now it’s literally every day."

Derek Johnson is a former architect who walks his small dog, Pippin, multiple times a day. He has lived on Stanney Lane for 34 years and recalls when the area was mostly farmland. With a rather positive view of living near the retail park, Derek doesn’t consider the traffic to be much of an issue, other than people occasionally going to the village hall for functions.

He also acknowledges that times have changed.

He added: “I like this street - it’s as good as anywhere to live.”

There’s an old bus shelter at the end of the street that he helped to design and convert into a book swap.

He said: “People come and take some and bring some of their own and what not, so you get a lot of people pulling up."

Owner of Lime Tree Farm, Kelly Janjic, has lived bordering Cheshire Oaks for five years. She is a huge fan of being able to walk over if she needs to shop and enjoys the proximity to the restaurants. She echoes Derek’s view that traffic isn’t too disruptive, considering the location.

Kelly explains that the traffic can be avoided by simply planning when you go out.

She said: “Don’t get me wrong, Black Friday, for example, I went to Asda which is a mile down the road and it took me a while to get back. You have to kind of think about - do you really have to go out on a Saturday afternoon at two o’clock?

“As far as Cheshire Oaks is concerned, we don’t get any traffic down here. Might get the odd person coming through but they could be going anywhere couldn’t they. I don’t personally have any problems.”

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