The draft Core Strategy document, which represents the next stage of the Local Plan, is expected to be approved this week ahead of the last public consultation before the Council publishes the version of the document it will submit to the Secretary of State.
The Cabinet Member for Strategic Communities will consider the Pre-Submission Core Strategy at a meeting on Friday, 1st November, before the public consultation on the next stage in the production of a Core Strategy starts on November 5th.
Cllr David Brown said "It is three years since the consultations began on the Local Plan. So far we have received about 28,000 responses from members of the public about our draft proposals. This is an unprecedented amount of interest in a document that will be the blueprint for Cheshire East to the year 2030. The Local Plan is a keystone for the future of the area and supports our number one priority – Jobs Led Growth. The plan has been developed to support the generation of jobs focused around the M6 corridor but also ensures that the character of Cheshire East is retained.
"In September, I unveiled provisional strategic sites for potential inclusion in the emerging Local Plan Core Strategy. These sites, together with the plan's evidence base and proposed new infrastructure have been incorporated into this document which will now be subject to public consultation between 5th November and 16th December 2013.
"We had a tremendous response when we presented these sites to our Strategic Planning Board in September with around 30 people and groups coming along to speak at the meeting. There were some excellent and constructive points made and it's only right that we respect the effort people put in by now making extra time to reflect on them properly.
"Following this final round of consultation, we will publish the Core Strategy, inviting formal representations – and then submit those comments along with the document to the Secretary of State who will ask that the Core Strategy is examined by the Planning Inspectorate."
Provisional strategic sites in the draft document located in Wilmslow include:
- Land to the north of Adlington Road where 225 new dwellings could be built. 175 homes are expected to be delivered during the early part of the plan period (2015-2020) with 50 homes expected during the middle part of the plan period (2020-2025).
- The Royal London site, which is situated in the Cheshire Green Belt has been identified for mixed use development, delivering 75 dwellings, 17-24,000 sq m of employment space and a hotel.
- Green Belt land between the West Coast Main Line and the A34 Wilmslow bypass has been identified for a new Wilmslow Business Park, which will provide around 25, 000 sq m of employment space during the middle and latter parts of the plan period (2020-2030).
In addition a new village called The North Cheshire Growth Village is proposed on the eastern edge of Handforth. The site, which is located within the Green belt on land off the A34 Wilmslow-Handforth Bypass will provide 1,800 new homes and 12 hectares of employment land. The site will also deliver medical facilities to include a doctor's surgery and pharmacy, public house or restaurant, sports and leisure facilities, community centre, children's day nursery, hotel and new schools.
Safeguarded Land has also been identified in the draft Core Strategy that may be required to meet longer-term development needs stretching well beyond the period of the Local Plan. One of the safeguarded sites is 26 hectares of land adjacent to the North Cheshire Growth Village in Handforth East.
Other safeguarded sites include 26 hectares of Safeguarded Land off Prestbury Road and 14 hectares off Upcast Lane, which would both require an adjustment to the Green Belt boundary.
The draft version of the Core Strategy will be discussed at a meeting with Cllr David Brown, Deputy Leader of CEC and Cabinet Member for Strategic Communities. The meeting will be held at Westfields, Sandbach on Friday, 1st November, starting at 12 noon.
A copy of the Pre-Submission Core Strategy, which is expected to be approved for public consultation, is available to view on the Cheshire East Council website.
Comments
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CEC are just carrying out a box ticking operation, the whole process has been flawed from the start but nobody it seems can do anything about the whole process, certainly not the residents of Wilmslow who were told from the out set that their views and opinions needed to be heard!!
Well they have been but nobody at CEC or the Local Council appears to be Listening? Why? Draw your own conclusions!!
I worry that this process will repeat and repeat over the years to come and our precious landscape will be lost for ever. I would like to hear from CEC the answer to two simple questions. Why do they not make an inclusion in the Local Plan recognizing the massive input of brownfield sites produced by ROW? I would also like to hear from CEC why they place no emphasis upon the development of flats/apartments whereby it is possible to provide 2 housing units compared with 1 by traditional units? Half the land use for the same output of accommodation. Does this not also meet one of the criteria of an ageing population moving out of traditional houses and into apartments, thus freeing them up for younger families.
It will not matter one jot if any plan is formulated. I watched as a child as huge estates of cheaply built semis were built all around Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme, Handforth and Poynton. When I got more mobile I realised the same thing had happened in Sale, Knutsford, Winsford etc etc. Then I watched the horror of Summerfields being "constructed" with the first phase "to last 60 years before it falls down" according to those who worked on the houses in the early eighties. The windows rotted within three years!! Witness the infill behind The Slug and Lettuce if you are in any doubt about residents wishes - the council appears to do as it is told!! We now have the new factory on Altrincham Road, Infill along the bypass which we were promised wouldn't happen. A new settlement in Handforth that only the council and greedy "developers" want. Same at Woodford BAE site.
Somehow the even greedier Manchester Council has acquired green belt by the M56 and "airport city" with 1.5 million square feet of space is to be built with Chinese money. I recall Bryan Robson being refused planning permission for a sports injury clinic by the site of the Marriot Hotel on the grounds that the land ajoining the carpark was green belt!!
We are only residents and taxpayers. The top end houses now are very hard to sell and with the continuing destruction of the reason why people pay a premium to live here the only way is down and off to somewhere still pleasant and less attractive to the various conmen!