Cheshire East Council launches a six-week consultation on its revised Local Plan Strategy tomorrow – offering the public the opportunity to have their say on the changes that have been made.
The finalised blueprint will shape development across the Borough up to 2030.
The consultation will run from Friday, 4th March to Tuesday 19th April 2016, and follows the plan's approval by full Council on February 26th.
The focus will be on the changes the Council now proposes to the plan it originally submitted to the Secretary of State in May 2014. This includes additional and amended strategic site allocations.
The Council is then due to submit the Local Plan Strategy, with any amendments, to the Planning Inspector in the summer (2016).
Councillor Ainsley Arnold, who is now overseeing the Local Plan process, said: "The Local Plan Strategy is the Council's most important tool for shaping development in Cheshire East up to 2030.
"The very positive views expressed by the Planning Inspector have enabled the Council to make amendments to our Local Plan with confidence and publish these for public consultation. This includes a comprehensive suite of development sites to accommodate the larger scale of growth now expected and planned for in the Borough.
"The Inspector has confirmed that he is content with the Council's proposed arrangements for public consultation on the proposed changes to the submitted plan.
"Following a period of full consultation during the next six weeks, further examination hearings are expected to be held in early autumn.
"There has been a tremendous response from residents and other stakeholders during nine previous rounds of public consultations on our Local Plan proposals.
"To date, we have received more than 40,000 responses to our draft Local Plan. This is an unprecedented amount of interest in a council consultation process and I hope this additional period of consultation will allow everyone to feel they have had time and opportunity to have their say.
"This must be one of the most-consulted on Local Plans in the country. However, given the changes made and the significance of the plan, it is only fit and proper that people are given a full opportunity to reflect on this document and give their views."
The updated evidence completed during the suspension of the Inspector's examination necessitated revisions to the main strategic policies relating to housing, economic growth, development and green belt. The wording of policies was amended to reflect the outcome of the new evidence. The key points included:
● Revisions to reflect a revised housing requirement of 36,000 homes (up from 27,500 and now including accommodation for older people);
● Increased employment land requirement, up from 300 hectares to 380ha, to reflect the stronger anticipated jobs growth rate of 0.7 per cent per annum (up from the original anticipated rate of 0.4 per cent);
● Revised spatial distribution of development, incorporating both the uplift in overall development and the need for additional growth in the northern towns;
● Increase in the amount of safeguarded land within green-belt areas to 200ha;
● Replacement of the new green belt between Crewe and Nantwich with a revised strategic green-gap policy.
These revisions were endorsed by the Council's strategic planning board and Cabinet before being voted through by full Council on February 26.
Every comment, objection or expression of support for the Local Plan has been recorded on the Council's consultation database – so they have a clear picture about what has been said so far on the plan.
The revised Local Plan proposes that 900 homes be provided in Wilmslow along with 10 ha of Employment land - an increase from 400 homes and 8 ha in the submitted plan.
The safeguarded land at Adlington Road) has now obtained consent and is under construction so to meet future needs additional allocations are proposed in Wilmslow, all of which require amendment of the Green Belt boundary.
It is proposed to maintain the allocation at Royal London for mixed use but to include land west of Alderley Road within the developable area. This will now provide for around 175 homes and 5 ha of employment land.
Further housing allocations are now proposed at Little Staneylands and Heathfield Farm. The former will accommodate around 150 homes on land off Stanneylands Road, situated adjacent to the Dean Valley. Heathfield Farm at Dean Row Road is located on the eastern edge of the town and will accommodate around 150 homes. It will be accessed by the existing roundabout. The remainder of this land; extending to some 9 ha towards Cross Lane will be safeguarded for future development after the end of the plan period.
A further area of safeguarded Land is proposed between Upcast Lane and Cumber Lane, this extends to approximately 15 ha, and it is proposed once again to allocate land west off the A34 close to Wilmslow High School for employment use.
The revised plan proposes that 2,200 homes be provided in Handforth along with 22 ha of Employment land. The proposals are for 1650 homes and 12 ha of employment land at the North Cheshire Growth Village, located off the A34 Bypass and bordered to the north by the A555 (Manchester Airport Eastern Link Road), and 250 homes on land at Sagars Road. 14ha of land south of the Growth Village is also proposed for safeguarding – for development after 2030.
Click here to see the Local Plan Strategy documents suite.
To register your views on the Local Plan Strategy Proposed Changes, visit the Cheshire East website pages on the Local Plan.
Alternatively, you can fill in a comment form at your local library, Cheshire East Council's headquarters in Sandbach or the customer service point at Macclesfield Town Hall.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Would ANY resident support development of the greenbelt BEFORE every acre of brown field had been developed?
Let us not pretend this is a democratic process.
Even if you are not close to one of the green belt areas around Wilmslow proposed for development you will be still be greatly affected:
• By increased traffic due from an average of 2 extra cars per new house built (900 proposed for Wilmslow)
• By greatly increased congestion on the A34 due to the extra 1,650 houses proposed for the North Cheshire Growth Village and another 250 elsewhere in Handforth, plus the 950 houses being built by Stockport at Woodford. So 1,900 at Handforth, 900 at Wilmslow and 950 at Woodford a total of 3,750 houses, at two cars per household this means over 7,000 more cars.
• When the new SEMMS road is completed the traffic surveys indicate there will be a 50% increase in traffic on the A34 without that generated by all the proposed housing.
• Even more difficulty parking
• Overloaded schools meaning some children will have to go outside Wilmslow to school
• By increased strain on medical facilities and other services
There is over-provision of housing proposed not just in Wilmslow but in the borough as a whole. Over 60% of the housing provision is to cater for increased migration into Cheshire East – look closely at how these figures are arrived at and whether they are soundly based.
Increased jobs growth from 0.4% proposed in the original plan to 0.7% now result in the creation of 25,000 new jobs not the stated number of 31,400 which is a 25% overprovision. At the hearings last December in front of the government inspector Cheshire East stated that the figures had been ‘rebased’ but failed to say how the new ‘base’ had been calculated. Fewer jobs mean a lower housing need.
In making the greenbelt assessment the brownfield potential in Wilmslow is understated. If corrected nearly all green belt sites around Wilmslow make a ‘significant’ or ‘major’ contribution to green belt purposes.
There is over provision of employment land. The Waters development has not been counted in to what has already been provided in the plan period and there is a huge area of vacant office space in Wilmslow, Handforth and surrounding areas.
The spatial distribution between the major centres in the borough and between north and south has been set very arbitrarily without taking account of the constraints of the greenbelt.
Planning legislation allows local authorities to set a housing need lower than the full assessed estimate if there are constraints such as green belt that restrict development. So there is no need for Cheshire East to set such a high housing need.
The government continues to pay at least lip service to protecting the green belt and Nick Bowles when housing minister stated that ‘housing need will not normally satisfy the exceptional circumstances necessary to build in the green belt’.
Such distortions were clearly evident at both the recent SPB at Macc town hall & last week's full Council meeting-whenever a member of the public &/or councillor suggested, even pleaded, that certain Green Belt sites be taken out of the LPS, example Fence Ave, Heathfield Fm, Royal London, were met with "You MUST put another site in its place otherwise you cannot advocate taking this out".This by the likes of Sean Hannaby & Adrian Fisher (planning apparatchiks) & by the new Council leader is not of any concern to these unthinking & uncaring people - they only want to do the developers bidding. It is developers who have the deep pockets, employing former council officers up & down the country.
We, the public, are not planners but we at RoW do believe CEC has erroneously miscalculated growth build numbers (deliberately or otherwise being very poor mathematicians). Government "policy" is to first build on existing brown & derelict sites (Brown fields BEFORE Green Belt) but this is being ignored throughout the borough as developers require only pristine & green - this maximises profits whereas old Brown sites will inhibit the far greater profit from green.
Greed,uncaring, no sense or understanding of local communities needs & wishes, these are paramount.
Vic, you are once again, so right. More power to your pen.
Sadly I think Vic Barlow is right but Mr Pratt may well be more impressed with an around 90% objection rate to development of the allocated sites than Cheshire East Council was last time round. He may well pick up that far too much land is being taken from the Green Belt and act accordingly. Without doubt the sums do not add up.