Growing concern over 'flawed' Local Plan consultation

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A group of Wilmslow residents, who have been campaigning to protect the green belt around the town, are becoming increasingly concerned about Cheshire East Council's (CEC) proposal to take land out of the green belt.

Members of Residents of Wilmslow (RoW) are also concerned that the Council's draft plans, which people are currently being consulted on, contain omissions and people are having trouble accessing the material on CEC's website.

David Lewis of RoW explained "The short form version of the Cheshire East Draft Plan 'Shaping our Future A development Strategy for Jobs and Sustainable Communities - Summary Document' glosses over the fact that land to the west of the Alderley Road at Royal London (site D in the Wilmslow Vision) is to become 'Safeguarded' i.e. reserved for future development.

"Page 28 of the Summary Document makes no mention of this. It is only on close scrutiny of the map on page 29 where the colour coding shows that it is designated to become 'safeguarded'. Most readers will probably fail to notice this."

David added "It is also becoming apparent that the Cheshire East website is so confusing that people are having difficulty finding the consultation and if they do find the link find it difficult to navigate. Only more experienced internet users will find their way through the labyrinth that CEC has constructed.

"We therefore fear this will have the effect of 'disenfranchising' scores of would be respondents, thus debasing the whole exercise in 'public participation'. We may have to consider our response to this gross shortcoming."

Manuel Golding of RoW attended this week's Town Council meeting to raise their concerns.

He told councillors "The process is somewhat flawed. We're finding that people are having great difficulty getting around the site (CEC's website) and we're coming to the conclusion that we need to suggest to people the best way to respond is by email or letter.

"With regard to Site D, Alderley Road fields owned by Royal London, the summary document does not show the site as even being safeguarded in the script - if anyone just scans that they will miss completely that at the moment it is safeguarded (for future development).

"The only way they can find out it is safeguarded is by looking at the map on the opposite page but people may not look at the map and may not be aware of the little green triangle (which depicts safeguarded land).

"We fear there is an oversight by Cheshire East Council in their presentation. In the full document it is there but in the summary document, which is the only one people can take home, it is missed.

"In the meantime we have been assured by Councillor Jones that that field will revert to green belt after the process of public consultation but we need the public to back this up to get responses so we're frightened and aware people may miss it."

Manuel added "With regard to Site F, we're totally opposed to any development on Site F which is Royal London's main campus. We feel that the fact that they've applied for 75 houses on green belt plus commercial development plus hotels could well be a trojan horse and in the fullness of time they may well come back. If CEC grants the planning for the 75 houses only, in time to say they want more houses on that site because once the green belt has gone its gone.

"We've very concerned that it will become a much larger housing area in the fullness of time."

As reported earlier this week, Wilmslow Town Council has announced their intention to send leaflets to all the households in the town informing them about the consultation on the draft plan. RoW hopes this will draw attention to CEC's proposals for these sites.

Cheshire East Council's six-week consultation on their Development Strategy runs until 26th February.

Consultation documents are on the Cheshire East Council website and hard copies are available from Wilmslow Library and Wilmslow Town Council.

Tags:
Local Plan, Residents of Wilmslow, Wilmslow Town Strategy, Wilmslow Vision
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Comments

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

Peter Davenport
Tuesday 29th January 2013 at 8:11 pm
Dear All
Can we trust this East Cheshire.? I wrote about the Reneham site, from which the for Sale board has disappeared after the cleaning up of the site. I enquired to Ches East and got the following reply

I can confirm the Council are reviewing its options for the site.
I anticipate the site will be marketed again sometime in the future however timescales are unclear as yet.
Once a decision has been made I shall contact you further.

Is this the truth or tactics on the Ches's East part? Comments please.