Council extends Local Plan consultation

The Council is giving people more time to have their say on draft plans for the future development of Cheshire East.

The aim is to give as many as people as possible the opportunity to get involved in the next stage of consultation on its draft Local Plan.

A six-week consultation on the development strategy was due to be launched on January 15th. However, given the public's interest in planning and development matters, an advance copy of the draft Development Strategy has been made available today on the Council's website, to enable local residents to view it over the Christmas holiday period and beyond.

The new Local Plan will aim to promote economic growth, improve connectivity and protect our countryside from unplanned development for the next 20 years.

Consultations on the Local Plan began two years ago. Since then, the feedback on the Issues and Options paper and the individual Town Strategies has been considered to produce a draft Development Strategy.

Councillor David Brown, Cheshire East Council Cabinet member in charge of strategic communities, said: "We are preparing a new Local Plan that will promote economic growth, improve connectivity and protect our countryside from unplanned development.

"We want people to have as much time as possible to digest and understand our draft Development Strategy – and so we are bringing forward the publication of the document so it can be viewed on our website over Christmas and people can then give their views.

"We hope this will give the best opportunity for as many as people as possible to comment on the proposals.

"I believe this draft Development Strategy keeps the best of what we all cherish about our towns and villages, whilst also providing for a successful and prosperous future for us all.

"This plan will ensure that Cheshire East will maintain and enhance its position as the number one Borough in the North West.

"I urge everyone to continue to get involved and let us know your views."

Cheshire East Council Leader Councillor Michael Jones said "I take very seriously my responsibility to protect the people of Cheshire East from unwanted and unplanned development.

"By extending the period for people to comment on the Development Strategy, I am confident that we will give more people the time they need to consider the issues in depth and to put forward robust and constructive comments that will benefit all our local communities.

"Our Development Strategy is a robust, jobs-led strategy to deliver targeted and sustainable development to benefit all the people of Cheshire East.

"I have today committed additional resource to ensuring that this plan is in place so that we can speed up the process.

"The Development Strategy will deliver 27,000 new houses and 20,000 new jobs and the infrastructure needed for this to happen. It will also continue to support Cheshire East's position both as the economic powerhouse of the North West and as a beautiful place to live.

"This is a sustainable, plan-led Development Strategy, which sends a strong message to the developers besieging our towns, inviting them to work with us to strengthen our towns and deliver positive outcomes for the people of Cheshire East."

Visit www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/localplan to view the draft Development Strategy document.

Tags:
Cheshire East Council, Local Plan
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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Stuart Redgard
Saturday 22nd December 2012 at 2:04 am
I would like to correct the misleading information that Cheshire East Council appear to be providing in this article.

The Consultation Period has not been extended. It remains at 6 weeks as previously planned and will be between the 15th January 2013 and 26th February 2013.

All that Cheshire East Council have done is release some of the documents early. Note. Not all of the documents that we are to be consulted on are currently available! I wonder when the rest will be made available.

The consultation period for the draft Wilmslow Vision which was a much smaller document was over 8 weeks (28 March 2012 to 31 May 2012). I don't understand why the consultation period on this much larger and more important document is shorter.
David Lewis
Saturday 22nd December 2012 at 10:57 pm
There are 226 pages in the Plan which has some differences from the document that was approved at the Cheshire East Cabinet meeting on 10th December whihc had 240 pages. Not exactly a holiday read! Is there a prize for reading it from beginning to end? A summary in plain English is badly needed if the public are to engage with it. It is not yet clear how it will be publicised or how we give our views - is there to be a questionnaire or are we simply invited to make comments?