Local residents are being urged to have their say on the proposed changes to the Local Plan before the consultation ends next week.
Cheshire East Council has been working on the formation of a new Local Plan for some time. It is obliged by Government to formulate a Plan that identifies how many houses are going to be built and how much land will be given over for employment use between now and 2030.
As part of this process they have had to identify which parcels of land should be used and because Wilmslow is surrounded by highly valued Green Belt this has generated much debate over the past couple of years.
In the revised document the main changes affecting Wilmslow are that the number of new homes proposed for Wilmslow has increased from 400 to 900 and the amount of commercial land has increased from 8 ha to 10 ha.
Additionally three new housing sites have been added at Heathfield Farm, Little Stanneylands and opposite Royal London for development before 2030. The number of houses on the Royal London site for development before 2030 has increased from
A site south of the Heathfield Farm site has been reserved 'safeguarded' for housing after 2030 whilst the size of a site safeguarded for housing after 2030 located west of Cumber Lane has now been increased to include land at Upcast Lane.
Plus the site safeguarded for housing after 2030 located south of Prestbury Road and east of the A34 has been removed and the size of the proposed Wilmslow Business Park, located between the A34 and the railway line, for development before 2030 has been increased.
The consultation primarily concerns the proposed changes between the initial Plan submitted in late 2014 and the current version, however you are able to comment on other aspects, such as:
- Do you agree that Cheshire East Council has interpreted accurately the views of the Planning Inspector in moving from 400 homes to 900 homes and does the evidence support the increase?
- Do you agree with the amended site selection document that the Prestbury Road site (removed from the allocations) is less appropriate for development, either before or after 2030, than the new and expanded sites selected and if not, why not?
- Do you agree that the selection of the new and expanded sites has been justified by the evidence put forward and if not, why not?
- Has the Infrastructure Plan soundly demonstrated how each site could be facilitated to bring about sustainable development and if not, why not?
Consultation documents can be accessed online at www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/localplan and on Local Plan Consultation Portal. A hard copy of the Local Plan documents can also be viewed at Wilmslow Library.
Responses should be made using the online consultation portal, by email or by post to Spatial Planning, Cheshire East Council, Westfields, c/o Municipal Buildings, Earle Street, Crewe CW1 2BJ.
The deadline for online submission is 5pm on Tuesday 19th April.
The above information is from a leaflet published by Wilmslow Town Council to encourage as many Wilmslow residents as possible to be aware of the Cheshire East Council Consultation and have the opportunity to participate. If you did not receive a leaflet you can download a copy here.
For more information on the proposed development sites for Wilmslow and Handforth see our earlier article 'Proposed changes and new site allocations for local plan revealed'.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I imagine we are supposed to wade through the waffley 145 page document on their website, which is hardly presented in layman's terms.
On the surface, it seems crazy to choose to build at Stanneylands, for example, over the Prestbury Road site. Why would you want to have an estate you can access easily from main roads, with an existing roundabout serving it, when you could build down a narrow road with 90 degree bends. But I suspect the key is when they comment on Stanneylands that "the site is being actively promoted by a planning agent".
I really wish they'd dispense with the doublespeak word "Safeguarded" too, which pretty much means the opposite of what they mean.
If Cheshire East Council happened to own the Prestbury Road site, well, that would just be serendipitous!
But that's just me with a conspiracy theory!
Cheshire East Council's Council Meeting, 26th February this year.
The Local Plan Strategy (rewritten version) was before the Council for consideration.
Amendment proposed by Cllr Barton (Wlm West), Seconded by Cllr Menlove (Wlm East)
"That the land west of Alderley Road (part off CS26) that is a vital green corridor in Wilmslow and was an unwelcome late addition to the Plan. and was
previously designated as 'protected open space' be removed from the Local Plan Strategy'
The amendment was overwhelmingly opposed with only four councillors voting for - Cllrs Fox (RoW), Barton & Menlove, Brooks (all Conservative) and all representing Wilmslow.
However, when it came to the Council voting on whether to accept the Plan or not, we see a rather different picture unfolding. This was on a named vote with councillors being
called individually to register their voting choice.
Councillor Ellie Brooks (Conservative - Wilmslow West) : "Not Voting" i.e. abstaining,
Councillor Garry Barton (Conservative - Wilmslow West): "Not voting" i.e abstaining
Councillor Don Stockton (Conservative - Lacey Green) : "FOR" the Plan
Councillor Rod Menlove (Conservative - Wilmslow East) : "FOR" the Plan
Councillor Toni Fox (Residents of Wilmslow - Dean Row) : AGAINST
The voters of Wilmslow should be aware that our Conservative councillors do not represent their voters; they adhere to the Conservative Party's line, in other words their mantra
is "Party first", whereas the RoW (independent) Councillor Toni Fox voted "Residents first".
Interestingly at the last local election, just over the border in Alderley Edge, the electors returned an entire Council of Independent members, where previously every single Councillor was a Conservative. The reason for this? They incumbents did not listen to their electorate.
Please take the opportunity to register your opposition to the erosion of the Green Belt in the Local Plan. This must be done in the next couple of days.
The process by which one can express views on the various proposals via the CE website is complicated by extensive and unnecessary detail and a lengthy series of links.
It's like wading through treacle!
In the view of one CE councillor, he believes yes it is deliberate and in he believes this is to reduce the number of respondents.
When I wrote to the Head of Planning raising concerns with the response portal, great difficulty in entering, difficulty in putting responses, slowness, constantly being "timed our" and not everyone the internet. Below is the response I received:-
"The vast majority of the community now do engage with the Internet - including those of retirement age. For that reason, in common with most organisations our consultation is Web based. That suits the greater part of the population - and this means that the documentation can be accessed at any time and at any place. It is actually far more equitable than the previous paper based consultations."
Arrogance? Unthinking officialdom? And this from "Your Cheshire East - Putting residents first" which emblazons this rubbish on its contact points. If it was actually doing (and listening) as its propaganda would have us believe then it would not be pandering to greedy developers "demands" for Green Belt & fields over renovating our towns by developing brown sites that abound therein.There are enough brown sites to meet the supposed housing need plus the windfalls that have & will come.
It would not be demanding the destruction of even more Wilmslow Green Belt (10 ha) for another piece of mythology, employment growth, by ignoring a large area of recently developed Green Belt for employment, i.e. at Waters. This took 5.3 ha of GB, thus leaving just 4.7 ha for such development. What does the council do? It insists the Waters 5.7 ha will not be counted towards the 10 ha even though Waters planning application of May 2011 was well within the Local Plan time frame (April 2010 to April 2030).
CEC is certainly not putting residents first, but right at the back of the queue.
Unfortunately our Conservative councillors, on both CEC & WTC, have collectively let Wilmslow's residents very badly down - they have shown they are more interested in obeying the party line.
Come the next elections, I would hope Wilmslow's voters remember this as they survey the traffic jams, lack of school places for their children, over burdened medical services, reduced quality of life and more.
I have given my feedback by email using the address provided in the leaflet..... - much easier than the internet option.
The "Head Of Planning" is clearly another square peg in a round hole if he (or she) believes that the web portal is, in any way, clear or easily navigable.
Quite apart from whatever happens concerning The Local Plan, CE should have their collective feet held to the flames for presiding over this shambles.
As for the about turn by our local Conservative Councillors, Pete Taylor is bang on the money with his comparison to recent events in Alderley Edge.
As the Master politician Sir Humphrey once clearly explained : ……….. “ I do see that there is a real dilemma here. In that, while it has been government policy to regard policy as a responsibility of Ministers and administration as a responsibility of Officials, the questions of administrative policy can cause confusion between the policy of administration and the administration of policy, especially when responsibility for the administration of the policy of administration conflicts, or overlaps with, responsibility for the policy of the administration of policy.”
I hope that clears things up for you Both…It would appear Sir Humph may have got his ideas from CEC.. and conversely .. That some of the councilors got their ideas on from him… ( As demonstrated.. Lyme Green, Adlington Rd.. etc etc ..)