Wilmslow Town Council will be making a submission to the Planning Inspectorate to convey their disapproval of some of the recommendations in the Local Plan.
Cheshire East Council has approved its draft Local Plan, which is now out for a period of six weeks for representations to be made prior to the plan being submitted to the Secretary of State for public examination.
Speaking at this week's Town Council meeting, Cllr Christopher Dodson said "We are deeply disappointed that many of the points which this Council raised in relation to the Local Plan appear to have been ignored and the Strategic Planning Panel (of Wilmslow Town Council) recommends a submission is made at this final stage - partly repeating some of the points already made and making one point which we have not previously made.
"We have already said that we consider that the amount of land which is being set aside for after the expiry of the plan, after 2030, (safeguarded) is excessive and disproportionate to the amount of safeguarded land thats being provided in the rest of Cheshire East."
He continued "Whilst we recognise that the amount of safeguarded land in Wilmslow has been reduced in size there are still two sites in Wilmslow which have been recognised for development after 2030.
"One is land off Prestbury Road and the other is land to the west of Upcast Lane and we are recommending that only one of those sites needs to be included, at the very most, and that the site at Upcast Lane should be removed from the Local Plan - partly because of the great difficulty of access to that land. We are also recommending that the area of land at Prestbury Road that is set aside should be reduced to pick up only the western aspect of the site and accommodate no more than 200 houses."
Cllr Dodson sought approval from the Town Council to make a submission to the Planning Inspectorate and summarised the main points as:
- The Royal London site should be commercial development only and not for houses.
- CEC should prioritise brownfield sites for development in their 5 year supply.
- The Adlington Road site should not be part of the 5 year supply but developed later in the plan period.
- The proposed commercial site adjacent to the A34 should remain as a visual greenbelt barrier between Wilmslow and Alderley Edge.
- The safeguarded site west of Upcast Lane should be removed from the Local Plan.
- The safeguarded land off Prestbury Road should be reduced in size take up only the western aspect of the proposed site and accommodate no more than 200 houses.
Cllr Gary Barton requested some of the wording and the tone of the document be looked at and commented "I agree about the land at Upcast Lane, more importantly I think it is a Green Belt barrier between Wilmslow and Chorley village and we are eroding that barrier so Chorley village itself, or Row of Trees as it is also known, will lose its identity."
The Town Council signed off the document in principal at their meeting on Monday, 17th March, subject to a couple of minor amendments which included looking at the wording of one paragraph and the tone, as well as adding Cllr Barton's point about the impact on Chorley if Upcast Lane was to be developed.
The Strategic Planning Panel will meet on Friday, 21st March, to tweak the document and depending on timing they may sign it off or bring it back to full Council next month.
Before handing over to the Secretary of State, the Council invites formal representations on the Local Plan, and accompanying documents.
The representation period runs for six weeks, from 14th March 2014 to 5pm on 25th April 2014, and forms can be found online at www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/localplan or by visiting local libraries and customer service points.
All representations received during this period will be collated and submitted to the Secretary of State, along with the Local Plan Strategy and accompanying documents, for consideration by a planning inspector.
