Alderley Edge Parish Council is looking to develop a Neighbourhood Plan after being contacted on a behalf of a Carlisle-based developer who is looking to build homes on green belt land on the south west side of the village.
Story Homes has been selected as the preferred developer to promote over 100 acres of private land at Ryleys Farm, which stretches from A Pearson & Sons tomato farm to behind Sutton Drive and Wilton Crescent, for a residential led development.
Story Homes recently met with local organisations including the Parish Council, schools, sports clubs and The Edge Association to present their initial plans. Their proposal would involve building homes in phases and could include the provision of a number of facilities for the village - such as sports facilities, the creation of school drop off points, car parking and affordable housing.
A spokesperson from Story Homes said "As an award winning, high quality and family owned housebuilder, it is Story Homes' preference to engage with the local community over the coming months to understand the aspirations of any development scheme in the community. Any scheme that is brought forward should provide for a number of community benefits with the delivery of much needed housing.
"Meetings with the Parish Council and key stakeholders have recently been undertaken and it is our intention to hold a wider community event to encompass all local residents within Alderley Edge who wish to be involved in the evolution of the proposals.
"There is no intention to submit a planning application within the next 12 months, and it is Story Homes intention to listen to all local interests at all stages of the proposals as they emerge prior to any application being submitted.
"Story Homes have proactively sought to engage with the Parish Council at a very early stage, demonstrating its ongoing aspiration to deliver a high quality proposal which addresses a number of existing constraints within the village and recognising the long term vision for Alderley Edge."
Alderley Edge is one of 13 Local Service Centres (LSCs) in Cheshire East that have been identified in the Local Plan, collectively these LSCs have been called upon to share a total of up to 3,500 new homes over the duration of the Plan period of 2015 to 2030.
Speaking about the initial proposal, Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council, said "Alderley Edge is a beautiful village and all development should be very carefully reviewed. I am to be led by the local members views and that of the parish council.
"They should inform the council what the goals are and how we can work on any application to the benefit of residents or not."
Geoff Hall, Chairman of Alderley Edge Parish Council, said "We believe that most residents would want us to oppose any new development that would substantially affect the size or character of Alderley Edge and our default position is therefore that the proposals represent an inappropriate development of green belt land."
Cllr Myles Garbett added "We have experienced continuous development over the last ten years, with many houses knocked down and rebuilt on a larger scale, but we have had no major expansion of the village boundaries for over 40 years. There are very good reasons for this; the green belt is essential to our survival as a village."
Borough Councillor Craig Browne commented "Our village already struggles with a chronic shortage of car parking space, for residents, shoppers and those working in Alderley Edge; therefore, additional, affordable car parking must be provided before any new development can realistically be considered.
"There is a lack of affordable housing for young adults in our village; however, we are firmly of the view that any proposals for new development must be determined through community-wide consultation. To this end, we intend to begin work on the development of a Neighbourhood Plan, which will identify where (if at all) any new development should occur."
Cllr Browne added "We would invite people with relevant skills and a willingness to help, to get in touch with Christine Munro, as it is essential that the Neighbourhood Plan process also involves members of the wider community. Christine can be contacted via email.
Cheshire East Council is currently working with 27 communities to bring forward neighbourhood plans and is encouraging many more to do so.
Neighbourhood Plans enable local people to have a say in the development they would like to see in the area in which they live.
Each plan goes through a final six weeks of public consultation before being scrutinised by an appointed independent examiner. A positive examiner's report would then mean the plan can progress to a local referendum, when local people will be given the opportunity to vote and bring the plan into effect.
The policies in an adopted Neighbourhood Plan are then given weight in deciding planning applications.
Councillor Ainsley Arnold, Cheshire East Council Cabinet member in charge of housing and planning, said: "Neighbourhood Plans are vitally important tools to enable local people to develop policies to address planning matters that affect not only their interests but also their wider health and wellbeing.
"These plans allow communities to take ownership of local planning policy, which directly impacts on many aspects of their lives.
"Neighbourhood plans are a key part of Cheshire East's real commitment to putting 'residents first' and being 'a listening authority' – and we fully support communities in putting them in place."
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 September meeting they voted unanimously in favour of creating a Neighbourhood Plan for Wilmslow.
In order to create a Neighbourhood Plan, 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
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
We do need more housing stock but it should be affordable and truly low energy not more of the same bland throw up boxes that Alderely has had so much of recently !! As a Cheshire based passivhaus developer, it tickles me that there isn't more focus on the end user and the environment rather than quick easy profit - come on Cheshire East get some forward thinking going we are way way behind out European counterparts.
100 acres of green belt = approx 500-1000 new homes at Ryleys Farms
2500 new homes on land opposite Tesco and M&S at Handforth Dean
100-200 on Adlington Road
900 on Woodford Aerodrome
All these lovely green space areas surrounding Alderley are being eaten into and squeezing the borders of a prestigious village for the developers pockets (and some others might infer a few brown paper packages might be passed about in CEC as well??) but, the only infrastructure work being carried out is on the A34 bottleneck at Handforth Dean to help the airport Link road to take all the traffic quickly away from Airport City...
How and what are CEC going to do to help the current residents of Alderley, they could start by paying out the compensation claims agreed for the Alderley bypass that still haven't been awarded (due to lack of budget we believe), even though its been open over 3 years (i think)?
As the journalist rightly says, Alderley needs Car Parking before more houses.
It'll end up spoiled and abandoned - because, apparently, each man kills the thing he loves.
Tragic.
I would imagine that a neighbourhood plan would invite a spectrum of views all the way from resistance to any further housing development whatsoever through to an acceptance of the need for housing in the proportions detailed above.
At first sight the Ryleys farm development seems out of proportion (going by Ian's figures in this thread) and I couldn't personally envisage much support for this to be included in the plan. My reasoning would be that encroachment on green belt so close to the centre of the village would be too much to stomach, coupled with the lack of infrastructure to meet the needs of so many new residents.
There is of course a masterplan for the redevelopment of Alderley Park which includes new housing almost exactly matching the 270 figure above. Its not exactly brownfield (unsure on this) but is in proportion to the requirement and feels like less of an encroachment into the green belt surrounding the village. Could it also bring some relief to parking congestion in the centre of the village by allowing a portion of the multi storey car park featured in the plan for long term stay park and ride for employees in the village?
I wonder then if this might be worthy of some serious consideration and receive some backing to go in the neighbourhood plan.
What please is AFFORDABLE housing because it seems to me the term Affordable housing seems very vague and alters area to area.
The so called affordable housing should be at least 50% owned by a housing trust to prevent profiteering.
The other problem is section 106 money is very tempting for local councils everywhere.
The money is very handy but it doesn't help young people born here and at the lower end of the job market to continue to live here.
Mixed housing development is maybe the answer rather than the elitist type we see in our area,where a lottery win is needed to buy a home.
Why oh why, if there is indeed a demand from the citizens of Alderley Edge, can't 'we' build our own such housing? The monies can be raised (see re. Medical centre?). Land (not greenfield) could be 'prised' from Cheshire East ?
Out-of-the-box thinking? If anywhere has the initiative and money-raising abilities, surely its Alderley Edge?