Cheshire East Council has launched another consultation about future plans for Wilmslow, which runs alongside the Wilmslow Vision consultation.
A draft Sustainability Appraisal of the Draft Wilmslow Vision has now been published. The purpose of the Sustainability Appraisal is to identify how the Wilmslow Vision, which sets out the vision, objectives, land use options and priorities for investment in infrastructure within Wilmslow, will contribute towards meeting environmental, social and economic objectives within the Borough.
Whilst a sustainability appraisal is not formally required at this stage it has been prepared to 'assist in establishing a structure within which the Wilmslow Vision can be assessed in terms of its contribution towards meeting environmental, social and economic objectives within the Borough'. The Wilmslow Vision document will feed into the Cheshire East Local Plan, a statutory planning document that does require a formal sustainability appraisal.
The draft Sustainability Appraisal has been prepared by consultants Broadway Malyan who have carried out an assessment of the vision, aims and objectives of the Draft Wilmslow Vision.
The first stage of the assessment is to test the social, environmental and economic impact of the proposed vision and objectives within the Wilmslow Vision. This assessment is performed in order to identify whether the achievement of the Vision will contribute towards improving sustainability across the Borough. This review will need to be undertaken again once the consultation process is concluded and the Vision strategy amended as appropriate.
According to the draft Sustainability Appraisal "This broad assessment indicates that in general terms the Vision, Aims and Objectives of the Wilmslow Vision could have a positive impact on the achievement of the social, environmental and economic objectives for Cheshire East, both individually and cumulatively. Therefore they can be considered to contribute towards the achievement of sustainability. However, this will be influenced by the scale and location of development, particularly for the housing in context of other sustainability objectives and the wider planning strategy for Cheshire East."
The assessment also indicated that "the objectives within Wilmslow Vision are potentially complementary and could cumulatively have a positive contribution to the achievement of sustainability. However this positive position is dependent on a number of factors including the appropriate scale and location of housing development."
The second stage of the assessment is to analyse the social, environmental and economic impact of the potential land use options of the Wilmslow Vision. This assessment is performed to assist in assessing the suitability of each site and to allow direct comparison of the various development options.
The assessment of each proposed site, undertaken by Broadway Malyan, can be found in Appendix B of the document.
Comments are sought from the public during this consultation process which will end on Thursday May 31st. The document will then be reviewed and completed by Cheshire East Council and other stakeholders in the light of the comments received.
You can download a copy of the Sustainability Appraisal here. To make comments on the Sustainability Appraisal, you'll need to log-in or register first, then click on the 'Start Survey' button below.
All comments must be submitted by Thursday 31st May 2012.
Hard copies of the draft Sustainability Appraisal are available for reference at the library and the leisure centre.
If you have read through the 78 page document please do share your views via the comment box below.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I found it quite hard to actually find the Appraisal Document on the CEC website, not everyone has access to the internet and the provision and the provision of reference copies in the library and leisure centre seems not only inadequate but somewhat ironic too, as both of these buildings are under threat of demolition!
A brief internet search revealed that Broadway Malyan's key business customers for many years include house-builders such as Taylor Wimpey; which surely must have made it rather difficult for an impartial view to have been taken by them in the writing of the Wilmslow Vision and perhaps they were a surprising choice for the CEC to spend £30k of council tax payer's money on.
It was encouraging to hear Michael Jones, leader-elect of CEC (at the Dean Row resident's meeting) state that if there was any conflict of interest found, he would ask for the money to be refunded. On the CEC website Mr Jones declares an interest in Taylor Wimpey of over £25k (presumably in share holdings?) so he is, no doubt, an expert in how the construction industry functions.
Information overload or desperate attempt at justification of the Vision?
I am grateful to Pete Taylor for his 'insights'.