Wilmslow Town Council has been considering the benefits of Wilmslow initiating a Neighbourhood Plan for some time and has on two previous occasions decided not to proceed. However, at their meeting on Monday, 21st September they voted unanimously in favour of creating a Neighbourhood Plan for Wilmslow.
Chairman Keith Purdom said "The previous council had recommendations from the Strategic Planning Panel that followed a public meeting, it followed a call for volunteers. The public meeting was generally warm to the idea but there were quite strong negative views as well. The call for volunteers I think got six expressions of interests, of whom four followed up, and the Strategic Planning Panel then recommended to the Town Council that we did not proceed on the grounds that it was extremely expensive, we didn't know how much, if any, influence it would have on the Local Plan, also the horse had bolted type of feeling and the amount of money was also uncertain as well.
"So the Strategic Planning Panel has discussed this a fair amount before bringing it back with a recommendation to you. The recommendation is unanimous from the panel I am pleased to say. The reasons are briefly I think summed up by a phrase by one of the SPP team 'we will never know if this is going to influence the Local plan but if we don't do it we know we'll have no influence'. The other reasons would be around the money now seems to be a lot less, there's a lot of other town and parish councils who have done or are doing this and there is some evidence that even if it is not complete that the inspectorate takes some notice of it."
Councillor Keith Purdom Keith added "If the Local Plan has got a certain number of houses in we cannot in the Neighbourhood Plan put in a lesser number of houses. It has to be compliant to be accepted by the inspector but what it can do is talk about site locations, future site locations through reserving sites and it can talk about the type of housing or the density. It doesn't guarantee it will be listened to but there is increasing evidence that the inspectors are guided when neighbourhood plans provide evidence."
Councillor Angela McPake, who was elected in May so not party to earlier conversations, said "What's minded me to support this is firstly that Cheshire East's own stance has changed so they are much more likely to listen to our views and there is evidence to suggest that. There is legal precedence that neighbourhood plans have some weight but the other thing is that it's not our plan its a community plan so it is about a plan for Wilmslow by the people of Wilmslow. We facilitate it more than anything else so for me that's important because we think we know what people in Wilmslow want, I don't think we really know and it is the ability to engage people in the community which for me is the thing that is really important about this."
Councillor Gary Barton said "This is something we should definitely pursue, it's not a cast iron guarantee but it is the best we have. The local planning process involves decisions for Wilmslow that are not easy because we are surrounded tightly by Green Belt, which means if and when the town expands, and we're being told that it must expand, then eventually there will become a point when we run out of extra sites and we have to start making more uncomfortable decisions about the Green Belt. Yes we want to avoid it as much as possible but it will come to that and I want these difficult decisions not to be made by officers of Cheshire East, I want them to be made based on the input from local residents because it is us who will be affected by that."
Councillor Keith Chapman commented "Whilst there are no guarantees that Cheshire East will take on board everything we say in our plan, it is intended to be a democratic process and if all the people of Wilmslow take part, and that's the important thing, we are facilitating something that Cheshire East will have great difficulty in ignoring.
"The point about the Green Belt being taken, it is one of the biggest things to be considered by Cheshire East and if we can have an influence on that we need to make sure that goes in a direction that the majority of the people that live in the town want it to so for those reasons I feel strongly we should put the money and investment into getting a seat at the table and having an influence on how this town develops."
Councillor Christopher Dodson added "This is indeed a community plan and it needs to be shown to have come from the community, rather than just from the Town Council. Having lived in Wilmslow for over 40 years I have the clear impression that almost every resident in Wilmslow is teaming with a specialist knowledge and great skill and I would like to make an appeal for some people to come forward and be part of this project. Now I fully understand a lot of the people I am talking about are busy running their businesses and would say we haven't got the time but we are talking about the future of Wilmslow and I consider that to be a really important subject and I would like to encourage as many people as possible with the appropriate skills to be part of this project."
Neighbourhood Plans effectively replaced Parish and Town Plans when they were introduced as part of the Localism Act 2011. Cheshire East Council is currently working with more than 20 communities to bring forward neighbourhood plans and is encouraging many more to do so.
Councillor Ainsley Arnold, Cabinet member in charge of housing and planning, said: "The Council has made a big commitment to helping our residents prepare neighbourhood plans that shape how their communities will develop."
He added "Neighbourhood planning is really taking off in Cheshire East with 23 of our communities actively involved in the plan-making process and a lot more in the early stages of discussion.
"It's an excellent way for residents to take ownership of those really important issues that we all grapple with in the planning system and we've expanded the neighbourhood planning team to make sure this happens. I look forward to seeing more of our communities submit plans to us and to steering them through the process."
Wilmslow Town Council has allocated a budget of £35,000 for 2015/16 and anticipates that a smaller budget will be required for 2016/17.
Comments
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Policy 2: No more offices
Policy 3: No more coffee shops
Policy 4: No, no, no, no, no. We don't want anyone to build anything anywhere. We've got our houses and no one else can have one.
Working on the basis you are being flippant (having read previous posts of yours), let me give you some comfort.
The Neighbourhood plan can't be anti any development, it has to cover sustainable development (which is where some of the challenge may come as we need to try and find a common view or at least a majority view from the community). It also has to work alongside the Local Plan that CE are currently producing and therefore can't say something totally different.
It can though, we believe, influence the detail of location and type/density of housing development (as an example) which we see a vital. Whilst inevitably a big focus will be housing it can also cover many other areas of the town (i.e. the town centre and how that should evolve) that the local plan doesn't really touch but that people in Wilmslow may well see as crucial to the future 'look and feel' of the town.
The whole point of the Plan is that is reflects the views of the residents as a whole, not one segment. We are going to need people in the community to get involved- whether they have specialist skills in this area or a just willing to give their time, as this is a big piece of work- I am hoping you will be volunteering Jack as you are obviously passionate in this area!
Remember the Local Plan that was launched three years ago by this council to allow the local Wilmslow residents a say in where new development should be allocated. The council then employed an expensive architectural/research company to consult with a number of residents' stakeholder groups from a range of interests throughout the town. Residents were encouraged to participate then - and they did!
Nearly 2,000 of them responded to five separate East Cheshire online consultancy questionnaires. 80% said that they did not want development within the inappropriate areas chosen.
A local residents organisation, Residents of Wilmslow, provided proof that the then 400 houses required at that time (now 900 see separate story) could be provided by utilisation of brown field sites. Wilmslow council decided that safeguarded land on Adlington Road in Dean Row should be used for building and to give them credit did listen to the residents and recommended to the planners in Sandbach that any development be delayed until 2025.
Their recommendation was overruled by East Cheshire Council and building of 208 homes started a couple of months ago. Throughout the whole of this period Michael Jones, the leader of East Cheshire Council told us he was listening to the views of local residents.
We should remember that this exercise has taught residents one thing - that the Wilmslow Town Council has no teeth when it comes to development. As long as the council remains part of a political party at a local level they will continue to be overruled by their colleagues in Sandbach and their bosses in parliament!
I am sad to say that for all its splendid puff the Neighbourhood Plan for Wilmslow will just be a total waste of money.
It should be noted that the East Cheshire Councillor for Dean Row who didn't listen to what his Dean Row constituents failed to retain his seat at the last local election.
In short a neighbourhood plan will not save one single blade of green belt grass.
Save our money Wilmslow and do another U-turn!
As far as I can see this issue has not even got a mention of the WTC website.
Any information of the number of people/groups who volunteered?