Wilmslow Town Council has responded to the latest Local Plan consultation regarding additional sites and maintained its previously adopted stance that development in the Green Belt is inappropriate.
Cheshire East Council recently consulted on 27 additional sites which have not previously been in the public domain, but have been proposed by developers and land owners as being suitable for development.
These additional sites included a part brownfield and part greenfield site at Rotherwood Road, which has been proposed by Emery Planning Partnership, on behalf of Herring Properties Limited, for the development of 174 dwellings. (Editors note: see member's comment below, this is apparently in the Green Belt, the Cheshire East report describes it as brownfield and greenfield they make no mention of Green Belt.)
The second site affecting Wilmslow is a plot of Green Belt land to the North of Beech Road,part of which lies in Wilmslow and part of which is in Alderley Edge, where a proposal has been submitted for a housing development of up to 250 homes.
The Town Council has given consideration to both site B (Beech Road) and site U (Rotherwood Road).
They have recommended that the Beech Road site is rejected because it is Green Belt land which "clearly acts as a significant buffer to the merging of Wilmslow and Alderley Edge."
Regarding site U, which they describe as a "less straightforward site' the Council is opposed to any development on previously undeveloped Green Belt. Part of the site has previously been developed and the Town Council would not oppose development on any part of the site which could be demonstrated as brownfield - "provided that any development would be part of the 400 homes already identified in the previous consultation document and that these be prioritised ahead of the development of any Green Belt or green field site."
Speaking about Town Council's response, Cllr Adrian Bradley said "This paper does two jobs. It reiterates our earlier conclusion on the Vision document and it also enabled us to consult with Residents of Wilmslow (RoW) again so it goes forward with their endorsement."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
This site is in fact Green Belt not green field, with a small area of brownfield (built on) within the Green Belt.
The Green Belt is designed to protect towns, villages, settlements etc from urban sprawl, whereas green fields are spaces without affording protection from sprawl. They are what they say they are, green fields. It is Cheshire East Council which has created this mistake by not referring to either Site U (Rotherwood) or Site B (Beech Rd, Alderley & Wilmslow) as being Green Belt - they are thereby afforded protection under planning regulations from development attack, unlike green fields.
Will it be possible to rectify the error in this article so as residents will not be misled?
Please press the "OBJECT" icon when returning your answers to the consultation.