Despite the Inspector's recommendation, Cheshire East Council has decided not to publish the final list of site allocations for the Local Plan prior to formal consultation.
Inspector Stephen Pratt sent Cheshire East Council his further interim views on the additional evidence produced by the Council during the suspension of the examination on 11th December 2015.
Included in this document was the suggestion that "CEC may wish to consider publicising the final list of selected site allocations before public consultation, so that stakeholders and local communities can provide up-to-date information on availability and deliverability and ensure that all other potential sites have been assessed; this may help to reduce the time spent at any further hearing sessions considering the delivery of these and other "omission" sites."
However, Cheshire East Council responded to the Inspector on Wednesday, 13th January, stating "Having considered that suggestion very carefully, we do not intend to undertake such a form of pre-consultation."
They provided the following reasons for their decision:
• The Edge of Settlement Analysis and Urban Potential work provides extensive information as to site options – this has been in the public domain for the past six months;
• The Council has contacted site promoters through the autumn to ascertain the latest position on site suitability and deliverability;
• Council officers have met with groupings of Town and Parish Councils during October and November 2015 to discuss the suitability and deliverability of candidate allocations for each of the Principal Towns and Key Service Centres;
• Council officers have briefed Cheshire East Councillors on an ongoing basis relating to progress on the LPS;
• Sites have continued to be promoted and brought to the attention of the Council throughout this process;
• Experience to date suggests that it is the examination hearings that tend to be the focus of debate and many site promoters and objectors will wish to pursue their cases through to any such sessions;
• Advance consultation will add at least 4 months to the overall programme – it is not clear that this investment of time will be repaid by eventual savings to the examination process;
• Carrying out two rounds of consultation, one immediately after the other could cause confusion, notwithstanding every effort being made to clearly explain the purpose and scope of each process.
The Council has also submitted an amended provisional timetable for the Local Plan. The next step will be for the Council to finalise and complete the proposed amendments to the Local Plan Strategy, including new and amended strategic site allocations, with all the necessary supporting evidence. This report will then be considered by the Full Council in February, the purpose of which will be obtain their approval of the proposed amendments.
The Council intends to publicise the proposed amendments to the submitted Local Plan Strategy, including new and amended strategic site allocations for public consultation in March/April and will consider and respond to representations made in April/May.
They propose to submit the amendments for examination in June and then prepare for resumption of the Examination hearings to consider amendments to the submitted LPS and sites in September 2016.
Speaking about the Local Plan at the Wilmslow Town Council meeting on Monday, 18th January, Chairman Cllr Keith Purdom said "The consultation appears to be expected in March, I'm sure you're all familiar that Wilmslow Town Council have made a strong request to Cheshire East that the consultation is full, far-reaching and everybody in Wilmslow has the opportunity and is encouraged to use the opportunity to respond to what is of course a Cheshire East consultation, not a Wilmslow Town Council consultation.
"We did decide at an earlier meeting to put some funding aside to support that consultation, or at least to have that money available subject to us making a decision of exactly how to spend it to make the consultation as good as it can be.
"We need to meet Cheshire East to talk about this consultation, and I met with Matthew (Town Clerk) this afternoon and he is going to try and organise something for members of the Strategic Planning Panel (SPP). We also need to consider, once we've seen the Cheshire East proposed sites for the consultation, whether we Wilmslow Town Council are going to adopt a position - remembering we won't necessarily have the views back from the consultation itself by that time.
"So there is certainly going to be some work and some hard thinking to do and just as a reminder the last position we expressed was brownfield first, no to development on the green belt for housing, a cautious yes to development on the Royal London site for commercial. That's the last we said and we said it quite consistently so we do need to review that position in the face of the new circumstances."
Comments
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Do these guys go to Night school to learn gobblygook???
but the response to the Inspector from Cheshire East does not give me huge optimism that this will happen. Consultation is only meaningful if views that are submitted are not ignored. While I support the Wilmslow Town Council statement "brownfield first, no to development on the green belt for housing" I see little evidence of its endorsement by Cheshire East.
IMPORTANT: The Cheshire East response to the Inspector from Cheshire East displays (in an Appendix) a revision of the timetable previously available and announced in the media, namely:
CHESHIRE EAST LOCAL PLAN STRATEGY FUTURE PROGRESS OF EXAMINATION
(1.) Mid-December 2015: Inspector (issued) Further Interim Views
2. February 2016: Council Meeting to consider proposed amendments to the submitted LPS
3. March / April 2016: Council publicises proposed amendments to the submitted Local Plan Strategy, including new and amended site allocations for public consultation
4. April – May 2016: Council considers and responds to representations made
5. June 2016: Council formally submits amendments to the submitted LPS for examination
6. July – August 2016: Preparation for resumed Examination hearings
7. September 2016: Resumption of Examination hearings to consider amendments to the submitted LPS and sites (including additional, amended and existing site allocations)
8. Actions following September 2016 and the resumed hearing sessions to consider amendments to the submitted LPS and sites (including additional, amended and existing site allocations):
(a) Main modifications to the submitted LPS publicised for public consultation
(b) Inspector’s Final Report on the Examination of the LPS provided to the Council
(c) Council adopts LPS, with main modifications, in accordance with Inspector’s
recommendation.
This must make the local plan detail for Wilmslow as it stands mostly irrelevant. CEC can't expect the public to accept it without a decent chance to look at it. After all, they talk to the developers and their lawyers, why not to us? The public have had no inputs to the local plan since February 2014.
So how can the Inspector accept that the plan is robust and meets NPPF guidelines? It will not.
After Cllr Michael Jones, perhaps Private Eye will be investigating this one too.
Can the council explain in a meaningful way (and not just as they have justified their stance in reply to the Inspector) why they have chosen to ignore the Inspectors advice?
The route that the council intend to follow suggests that they have little or no intention of changing anything as a result of consultation. Does this constitute the 'unfettered' consultation that the Inspector has asked for?
Can we please have a response to this from the council.
I find it quite extraordinary that a decision has been taken by the Council not to comply with the recommendations of the Inspector to publicise the final list of site allocations incorporated in the Local Plan prior to the public consultation.
This would seem foolhardy given that the Inspector has already criticised the poor level of public consultation, and indeed suspended the Examination for previous failings.
There was no suggestion from the Inspector of a "pre-consultation" as claimed by the Council, but a recommendation to provide the opportunity for "stakeholders and local communities to provide up-to-date information on availability and deliverability and ensure that all other potential sites have been assessed". It would appear from the Council's statement that this opportunity has been extended to land owners site and site promoters - why is the Council not extending the same opportunity to residents?
As I am sure you are aware we are working within a fluid economy and the recent revelations that Royal London, a major employer, in Wilmslow is looking to re-locate because its current site is within a restricted Green Belt area is of prime concern to residents. It is presumably instances such as these to which the Inspector was referring to.
The notes on "Delivery" on Page 20 of the minutes of the Local Plan Members Panel would appear to suggest that the Council intends to "streamline" and "restrict" the public consultation based on time constraints rather than delivering "most importantly,...full and unfettered public consultation" as recommended by the Inspector.
The Council statement in RE B013 concerning its consultation with Town & Parish Councils and the briefing of members is mendacious.
Two representatives from each Town & Parish Council were invited to a meeting with Planning Officers to discuss the candidate sites being considered in their area's. Notes of that meeting were taken and sent to councils for their approval. Please elucidate the justification and premiss of how the Council considers this a consultation given that this was the only meeting that took place?
The Council has only held one briefing for members since May that did not include any ward specific details and you have clearly stated that at the next members briefing on 9th February ""I do not intend to discuss site specific issues".
As democratically elected representatives of our wards I require an explanation as to why, and on what basis, the Council have made the decision that members do not need to be consulted on site selections prior to them going before the Spatial Planning Board and Full Council?
Regards
Toni
Cllr Toni Fox - Independent
Wilmslow Dean Row Ward
Don't back down Cllr Toni Fox. Keep fighting for openness and transparency in public office.