As part of their Local Plan, Cheshire East Council has agreed to provide 500 new homes in the Borough on behalf of High Peak Borough Council.
Their agreement to take 500 homes from High Peak's allocation, to help alleviate traffic problems on the A6 and protect the Peak District, forms part of a Memorandum of Understanding between Cheshire East Council and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council .
The document, signed by the two Chief Executives, was drawn up to establish areas of agreement between the two councils, identify areas where further work is required and set out a work programme for areas of collaboration.
Signed on 19th February 2014, it also covers plans for CEC to assist SMBC with meeting their requirements for traveller and gypsy sites by providing a Cheshire East owned site within the boundary of Stockport for a traveller and gypsy site which could be used by both authorities.
Following a request from councillors and local residents, Cheshire East Council published the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 14th.
A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council, said: "Cheshire East Council would like to make very clear its approach to cooperation with neighbouring authorities on planning and development matters, to avoid any misunderstanding of its approach to cross boundary issues
"The Localism Act places a duty on all councils to cooperate on new infrastructure and development. This duty was introduced following the abolition of Regional Strategies covering the North West and other regions. Part of the 'tests of soundness', that all Local Plans must meet, is the extent to which unmet needs in neighbouring areas are addressed within a plan.
"As part of this duty, Cheshire East has been in discussion with all its neighbours over many months. The discussions with Stockport have culminated in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which sets out what has been agreed so far between the Council – and further work that we confirm will be carried out.
"The memorandum highlights the request that Stockport Council has made to Cheshire East to try and assist in meeting Stockport's needs for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation – whether in Cheshire East or not.
"Cheshire East has not made any other commitment other than to look seriously at the issue and to continue to work with Stockport on the matter. This includes looking at the Council's land holdings. However, as yet, no discussion regarding any specific site has taken place.
"The MoU also indicates that a formal request has been received from High Peak Borough to meet some of their housing need. The Local Plan approved by a full meeting of the Council on 28 February includes an allowance of 500 homes for High Peak. This will assist in alleviating traffic problems on the A6 and other routes within Cheshire East as well as assisting in safeguarding the special character of the Peak District.
"The 500 homes will not be built in any one area – and not adjacent to the High Peak area itself – rather they have been added to the general requirement spread across the whole of Cheshire East Borough. This adds some 1.8 per cent to the overall housing requirement in the area."
The Memorandum of Understanding can be viewed here, it is within the Duty to Co-operate Statement of Compliance.
Comments
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Typical councils though - lots of meetings for months on end and all they can say is nothing has been achieved. You can imagine the conversation went something like.....
"Will you build us 500 homes?"
"Yes - but what's in it for us?"
"We don't know"
"Okay, so let's issue a Memorandum of Understanding then. It will take months to agree the wording. That's at least 4 more meetings where we can give each other with a nice lunch plus we can all claim some generous travel expenses too"
"Sounds great. Will you issue the press statement or will we?"
"Don't know...let's have another meeting to agree on who does that"
Now, where's Eric Pickles when you need him?
Matters arising were already excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide (vehicle emissions) on the A6, hence moving 500 houses over here. More = vehicle movements = more pollution. CEC take them so we get the pollution. Pollution is monitored on the Altrincham Rd in Wilmslow, nowhere else on the CEC map. Got to be high in the slow moving traffic on the A34 by Total Fitness (get it?)
Anyway, if you want to think about the hidden agenda, Stockport gets a deal on traveller/gypsy sites, CEC don't get objections about destroying Stckport's green belt, where Handforth settlement location is in the core plan.
Traffic numbers are too low for the A34, but CEC doesn't complain to the project team. CEC are left with costs to improve the A34 below the link road and there's nothing in any of this that benefits Wilmslow.
Great deal Cllrs and Ch Execs. Have any of you ever been to Wilmslow or Handforth?
Presumably Cheshire East could have persuaded another authority, let's say Cornwall, to take on some of their allocation?