Nearly 200 local residents and business owners who are concerned about the future of Alderley Edge attended a public meeting at Alderley Edge School for Girls on Thursday, 16th November.
The Parish Council and the Neighbourhood Plan steering group called the meeting to discuss the potential implications of the list sites in Alderley Edge which have been put forward for development in the period up until 2030.
Sarah Greenwood, of Alderley Edge Neighbourhood Plan steering group, and Councillor Craig Browne, led the meeting and gave a presentation (see above) covering the Cheshire East Local Plan, including the call for sites, as well as the Alderley Edge Neighbourhood Plan and how this can help the community shape their locality.
Sarah Greenwood said "We were delighted with the turn out and the level of interest from local residents. We now look forward to working with those people to develop a robust Neighbourhood Plan which has the interests of a wide range of residents at its heart."
At end of the presentation a number of residents questions were addressed, ranging from: How can the neighbourhood plan stop overdevelopment?; what is happening with the M&S food hall plan and what changes to traffic flow do you propose for the junction of Heyes Lane and London Road?
Afterwards some members of the public stayed behind for small group discussions to enable more local opinion to be gathered.
Councillor Craig Browne commented "it was great that a number of people stayed behind afterwards to participate in the "breakout groups", which focused on housing and village character, the local economy and transport and infrastructure."
Speaking about the next stage for the Neighbourhood Plan, Sarah said "The next steps are to bring together those residents who were interested in being part of the group - whether experts or individuals who are simply willing to get involved, help develop policies and steer the future of the village - form a number of working groups around the key themes and start to develop policies based on evidence and public opinion to date. Also to continue to consult with villagers, businesses and the interested parties to gather further evidence."
Councillor Geoff Hall added "We are very optimistic that we are now at the point where the Parish Council can hand over the leadership of the project to a group of committed residents. The Parish Council will still be involved but it is essential that the Neighbourhood Plan is led by residents, not by the Parish Council."
The next stage of the Local Plan will be a consultation in the new year regarding the allocation of sites, which all residents are urged to get involved in.
Cheshire East Council adopted Part One of the Local Plan in July, which allocates sites for development and employment land in the Key Service Centres (i.e. the main towns). The focus has now moved onto Part Two of the Local Plan which deals with the Local Service Centres (of which Alderley Edge is one).
Earlier this year, CEC carried out a "Call for Sites" consultation which invited developers and landowners to identify sites that they wanted to develop as part of the Local Plan. CEC has now issued the results of that consultation to Town & Parish Councils.
The sites, as identified on the map above, are as follows:
• CFS130 - Land North of Beech Road - 3.80 hectares
• CFS132 - Land at Horseshoe Farm - 0.75 hectares
• CFS350 Land at Chorley Hall Lane - 1.41 hectares
, proposed for employment use.
• CFS359/400 - Land South of Lydiat Lane - 2.43 hectares
• CFS370 - Land West of Heyes Lane - 4.87 hectares - proposed for a mix of employment and residential use
• CFS394- Land South of Netherfields - 2.23 hectares
• CFS404 - Land North & South of Chelford Road) - 47.81 hectares
• CFS405 - Land at Whitehall Meadow - 3.27 hectares
• CFS620 - Land to the rear of 40 Congleton Road - 14.01 hectares
